Yet Another Dance at Death's border
by Roguehunter11
Summary: The Grimm closed in, as the ember in his soul shivered and then surged forth, burning irrepressibly as he faced death once more. "It's going to be a long night" The 9-year-old murmured, his tone quivering in a manner that might have been mistaken for terror… if not for the nigh maniacal grin stretched across his face "Well, just another dance at death's border, I guess" Gamer!Jaune
1. Prologue: The First Dance

**Prologue: The first Dance**

Stories, legends, and epics have defined human history and culture for millennia. Of course for every story there is a hero, one who stands against the odds, sometimes alone, sometimes with the roaring support of thousands at their back. Sometimes that hero saves the day without swinging a blade or firing a gun, and the strength of their beliefs and of their words is enough to change the world. Other times, the world is not so kind, other times, victory and peace must be won through bloodshed and suffering.

There are countless stories with countless beginnings and countless endings, with suffering and happiness, drowning in peace and in war, with equal rancor. Yet for now, for this short fleeting moment, only one matters.

This is a story that begins as many do, with a boy with dreams of being a hero, with a boy who finds an unimaginable burden thrust upon him and quickly begins to understand the true price of heroism, to understand just how distant a dream happily ever after is.

This is the story of one Jaune Arc, of his suffering and failures, of his triumphs and glory. This is the story of a young man, striving to pay the price of being a hero.

* * *

It was late. The sun had long ago faded behind the treetops and only the light of a shattered moon illuminated the forest overlooking a small town at the edge of the kingdom of Vale. A few scattered lights shone through various windows throughout the town, in stark contrast to the darkened windows of the majority of the town. If one were to look closely into one particular window, the lone light signaling the way to the Arc mansion that stood at the center of town, they might see a young boy sitting at desk reading.

It was a normal enough scene, a young boy doing some later night studying that he should have done days ago, for some test he was probably cramming for at the last second and yet, for all its apparent normality…

* * *

 _ **By studying intensely, your intelligence has increase by 1**_

* * *

Something was different, something that one wouldn't be able to noticed, or at the very least would fail to derive the nature of, no matter how long they watched and examined the now grinning youth.

* * *

I grinned, barely repressing the urge to fist pump as I tapped the accept button on the semi-transparent screen in front of me.

My mini-celebration was interrupted by someone knocking on my door.

"What is it?" I called out reflexively.

The door opened revealing a somewhat short woman that appeared to be in her early 20's with blonde hair and blue eyes that mirrored my own. Her eyes scanned the room in a heartbeat before returning to me "While it's nice to see you studying, it is way past your bedtime young man"

I flinched glancing at the clock to find that it was nearly 11:30

"Sorry mom, I lost track of time" I admitted sheepishly.

She raised an eyebrow, sighing when she found no sign of deceit before shaking her head "Go to sleep Jaune, I'll let you off this time but I can't promise anything if it happens again, your sisters will be up in arms if I they find out I'll let their 9-year-old baby brother stay up 3 hours past his bedtime without consequences" she smiled fondly.

I pouted "I'm not a baby, I'm almost 10" I complained without any real heat.

My mother laughed lightly "sweetheart, you will always be my baby, it's a mother's privilege."

I continued pouting even as I moved to shut off my lights before shuffling towards my bed "night mom"

"goodnight sweetheart" my mother replied as she moved over to tuck me in, giving me kiss on the forehead as she did so "see you in the morning my little angel."

My pout broke and I couldn't help but smile as I watched my mother start to leave.

'observe' I thought as my mother left the room.

* * *

 _ **?**_

 _ **Lilith Arc**_

 _ **Lv ?**_

* * *

My pout returned full force as I lay down in my bed staring at the ceiling. Despite her appearance as someone less than halfway twenties, my mother was a retired former A-rank huntress who was in her early fifties, her powerful aura having slowed down her aging drastically. She was someone strong enough to be considered a first-class huntress, considered to be just a few steps below living legends like beacon's headmaster: professor Ozpin. It wasn't surprising that I couldn't even see her level, but I still felt like it was some bitter cosmic joke that I, her only son, had been such a complete joke as a huntsmen trainee.

'status'

* * *

 _ **Name: Jaune Arc**_

 _ **Age: 9 years**_

 _ **Aging rate: 85% standard human rate**_

 _ **Lv: 7**_

 _ **Health: 1090 [100%]**_

 _ **Health regen: 1.3% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)**_

 _ **Aura: 1868 [100%]**_

 _ **Aura regen: 1.25% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)**_

 _ **Vitality: 30 (39)**_

 _ **Endurance: 23 (30)**_

 _ **Strength: 21 (27)**_

 _ **Dexterity: 17 (22)**_

 _ **Intelligence: 18 (23)**_

 _ **Wisdom: 19 (25)**_

 _ **Stat points: 13**_

 _ **Luck: ?**_

 _ **Charisma: ?**_

* * *

I sighed lightly before closing the menu and opening another tab.

* * *

' _ **major skills'**_

 _ **Gamer's body Lv. Max: Allows the gamer to live life like a video game. If the Gamer's health is reduced to 0 Gamer's body is temporarily disabled, reverting the Gamer's physical form to that of a normal human until HP value recovers to at least 20%. While Gamer's body is disabled the gamer can receive scars and other permanent damage.**_

 _ **Gamer's mind Lv. Max: nullifies all negative mental effects. Allows for extreme emotional control.**_

 _ **Poison resistance lv 56: There's a reason why you're the only person in the Arc family (aside from your father) that is permitted to use the kitchen for actual cooking.**_

 _ **Indestructible master of housework lv 51: (unique level skill) You can cook, clean, sew, knit, embroider, paint, and anything else even remotely related to housework at a level far above even an elite housewife: extremely impressive for a 9-year-old and good progress on the road to becoming the ultimate house-husband, if that's your kind of thing. The result of living in a household of 10 where the only other person capable of cooking a piece of toast without setting the kitchen on fire is your father.**_

 _ **Dance! Dance! Legend lv 48: (unique level skill): Kick step, kick step, body roll is not rocket science! It's kick step, kick step, body roll! Not that it would matter for you if it was rocket science. You are a master of dancing in all forms, capable of picking up, mastering, and even modifying all dance moves on the fly with a single glance and minimal effort. Yet another point indicating that anything and everything even remotely resembling girl power in the Arc clan ignored the female majority of the family and went straight to you and your father for some reason.**_

 _ **Observe lv 23: You can observe the level and status of everyone less than 23 levels above your character level.**_

 _ **3-dimensional movement lv 21: The ability to move through terrains with rapid elevation changes and obstacles without being slowed; You've reached the level of an apprentice parkour nut.**_

 _ **Evasion lv 15: You can dodge obvious attacks with some consistency.**_

 _ **Covert arts lv 15: (advanced level skill) oversees multiple sub-skills, currently includes the ability to conceal yourself, steal, and spy upon others: at your current level you can steal candy from a baby. (evolved from skills: Stealth, eavesdropping, and steal)**_

 _ **Shield mastery lv 12: You can block the most straightforward of attacks.**_

 _ **Bladed weapon mastery lv 11: Well you won't cut yourself, probably.**_

 _ **Exhaustion resistance lv 11: Despite what your mother says, you don't need 8 hours of sleep; 7 and a half hours is plenty.**_

 _ **Ranged weapon mastery lv 9: you might be able to hit the broad side of a barn, with luck.**_

 _ **Aura mastery Lv. 6: Increase all statuses except luck and charisma by 30%. Reduce damage taken by 3%. Slows down biological aging rate post puberty by 5% .**_

 _ **-Aura shield (Aura subskill) lv 2: Passive barrier that absorbs health damage in exchange for Aura, at its current level the shield can absorb up 100 points of damage per second before being pierced.**_

 _ **Superior eyesight lv 5: Your eyes are slightly better than the average human's and can see with less light as well as slightly beyond the normal spectrum of what humans can see. Reduces light required for clear vision by 5%. Increases spectrum of visible light by 5%.**_

* * *

I couldn't help but frown again. My highest skills were poison resistance and an excessively exaggerated housework skill, the first of which was somewhat cool -if you could ignore that fact that I got it by 'volunteering' to test the results of my sisters' (and mother's unfortunately) attempts at cooking- but neither were really useful in combat.

While some of my skills might look good at first glance, from what I'd gathered skill levels went from level 1 up to level 100 with competence scaling as such: levels 1-20 representing incompetence, 21-40 representing passable levels of ability, 41-60 represented the level of a master practitioner, 61-80 was heroic level, and 81-100 was legendary level. I had started my training when I was 6, and had only barely managed to pass the mid-point of the incompetent tier with my primary weapons over the course of nearly 4 years. To put it in perspective of how slow that was, my sister twin Joan -who had started training at the same time as me- had already reached a proficiency level of 26 with her pole-arm mastery.

Even with my newly acquired gamer ability the revelation of how little I'd progressed for the amount of effort I'd put in had almost completely demoralized me. I would have been sorely tempted to give up if I hadn't discovered that the reason I wasn't progressing at anything resembling a decent rate had nothing to do with talent or potential. Discovering the reason for my agonizingly slow progress had taken an immense weight of my shoulders and was something that had ensured to me that I did indeed have the capacity to become a huntsman that would make my family proud. I just had to account for a certain trait of mine in order to do so properly.

Closing the major skills tab of my interface I open a different tab, beginning to reread the information I had already read countless times before.

* * *

' _ **Traits'**_

 _ **Grand Soul: You possess an exceptionally powerful soul, something that is reflected in your Aura reserves: Quadruples Aura gain per level and doubles Aura gain per point of INT. (200 Aura per level plus 20 additional Aura per point of INT.) Also increases the ease and effects of Aura training.**_

 _ **Heroic lineage: Your family is extremely old and well respected, having produced nearly a dozen known heroes as well as numerous well known political and historical figures in preceding centuries. Your family line precedes recorded history and is generally believed by most historians to have originated from the high nobility of an ancient -now ruined- kingdom that once existed long before the founding of the 4 kingdoms, nearly a thousand years ago: +1 to all base stats per level, -10% rate of aging.**_

 _ **Of a Different Breed: You grow differently than most people, put under the care of the best teachers in the world in safe conditions and you'll progress at a snail's pace, but if thrown into the middle of a life or death situation with nothing but yourself and your wits and you'll learn at a blistering pace: 90% reduction to the growth of all combat skills outside of real combat, 50% reduction to experience gained towards next player level outside of combat and from non-combat related quests. 400% increased growth of all skills during live combat, 400% increase in experience gained from real combat and from combat related quests. Growth bonus increases based on the amount of genuine danger you are in, the more difficult the fight the greater the growth multiplier. ?.**_

 _ **Incandescent Soul: You are one of very few individuals who possess a soul with the ability to produce immense amounts of Aura. Rather than producing aura at a flat rate that can only be increase by intense training, your soul restores a percentage of your total aura reserves every set period of time allowing for drastically faster recovery. While many veteran hunters must wait days for their immense reserves to recover from being fully emptied you will only ever need a mere fraction of a day at most for a full recharge: Aura regeneration is percentage based ([1+ WIS*.01] percent of maximum Aura recovered per minute)**_

 _ **You ? ?: ? is clearly into ?, why don't you ? it you ? idiot? +200% to relationship gains with ?, -95% to notice that ? has ? for ?. Charisma stat hidden from the gamer.**_

 _ **Heroic Aspiration: You have always desired to be a hero and to protect others and, as such, it is difficult for you to accept bringing others into dangerous situations unnecessarily, instead preferring to stand by yourself and bear the burden alone: Party function considerably restricted, true nature of Gamer ability hidden from all sensory skills and devices, health regeneration now percentage based ([1+ END*.01] percent of health recovered per minute). Luck stat hidden.**_

* * *

My bad mood was blown away as I regarded my traits once more. The « **Grand Soul** **»** **,** « **Incandescent Soul** **»** and « **Heroic Aspiration** **»** traits alone complemented each other to the point of being almost unfairly good, and that was saying nothing of the potential long term stat gains of my « **Heroic lineage** **»** trait **.** While the party restriction attached to the Heroic aspiration trait as well as the unknown trait littered with question marks were both somewhat worrying and disadvantageous, they were both relatively minor and it was nothing I couldn't work through one way or another.

The real issue was the downsides of the « **Of a Different Breed** **»** trait. While I could apparently learn at an almost inhuman pace if something was trying to kill me; normal, safe training was about as valuable as trash to me. To be honest I almost wanted to congratulate myself for making as much progress as I had so far, considering the 90% skill growth malus I'd been working against, but it was still a question as to how exactly I'd manage to find even a single Beowolf to fight without my overprotective parents or equally (and in some cases, even more) overprotective sisters rushing to kill it before it could so much as glance at me funny.

Ironically I wasn't too worried about the fight itself, for some reason, unless it was a crazy high level Grimm, of course this was partially because my Aura reserves were crazy large for my level. For someone without the « **Grand Soul** » trait or something of a similar nature, a level up gave 50 additional max Aura with 10 more for each additional point added to the Intelligence attribute. The truth was I, at level seven, had slightly more aura than my 15-year-old sister Sapphire who had already reached level 28. As a result, I was fairly confident in my ability to tank a few hits, just as long as my opponent was below level 10. That's on top of the fact that even a single minute of actual combat would apparently do more for my combat skills than 50 minutes of training would. Even disregarding my growth multiplier, I was fairly certain actual combat had greater base experience gain than training meaning that I would probably be able to level up my skills and get better over the course of combat quite quickly considering my current abysmal levels.

It would be hard work getting to a high enough level to be accepted into signal academy by the time I turned 12, but unlike a week ago, which was just before I'd unlocked my gamer ability, it was no longer an unattainable goal. It wouldn't be easy and I would probably lag behind my peers for quite some time until live combat training became the norm, but as long as I did my best and pushed myself to hell and back my dream was no longer an unattainable one. With these comforting thoughts, I felt myself begin to slowly nod off to sleep.

* * *

'Who am I?'

Such a question floated at the center of my(?) mind as I(?) looked around.

My(?) eyes focused on the scenery(sceneries?) around me(us?) strangely, like I(we?) was looking at something from a thousand different angles and yet could somehow see each one with perfect clarity. I was looking at Vale from a high vantage point, from the ice cream shop in the middle of town, and a hundred other alien places that somehow all felt familiar. The scenery was interrupted as the sky grew dark slowly, despite being only mid-day the sky was slowly blotted out by ominous black clouds as what I knew to be hours passed by in blurred moments. The clouds grew thicker and I felt nervousness overcome me before, without warning, a black wall of something expanded out in a dome originating on one side of Vale and suddenly I felt horribly empty. In a single horrific moment, the thousands of viewpoints I had once possessed diminished, as I felt the overwhelming majority of them suddenly being stolen from me as the black dome tore through Vale, consuming more than three quarters of the city in an instant, a torrent of harsh wind expanded out from the dissipating dome in a shockwave and I realize several dozen times in several dozen places that the dome was an explosion of some type: a black dust bomb, I learned from one of my selves. Rook, a voice whispered, before being silenced.

Fear and terror gripped me from a hundred directions as I panicked throughout the remains of the city and within the outskirts as time became muddy and obscure only to snap back into clarity when they appeared. Pitch black monsters with pale white masks and blood red eyes tear through the streets, killing me, killing me, and killing me as my perspectives disappeared one by one until only a single one remained and I remembered who I was.

I am Jaune Arc, 16-year-old huntsmen in training, I was on my way to take the beacon entrance exam a year early after a certain mishap led to me spending a few months in Grimm infested territory, which had allowed me to make up for lost time and even catapulted me greatly ahead of my peers. I am Jaune Arc and as of 4 hours ago when a black dome annihilated most of Vale, Beacon had meant about as much as a stone on the side of the road to me as I rushed down a familiar path, fighting my way through the Grimm that had rapidly filled the once quiet forests surrounding Vale. I had covered a lot of ground very quickly and had nearly reached the Arc family manor that stood nearby Vale, in a small fortified village barely 15 miles from the main city.

Yet as I tore up the path towards my house I was greeted not by the large yet welcoming Arc Manor I had grown up in, but rather by a ruined burning wreck no longer fit to be called a building, and rather than my loving parents and sisters I was greeted by an unfathomably large horde of Grimm and a number of weapons scattered on the ground and covered in blood.

I froze as my emotions failed me, Gamer's mind attempting to nullify the negative effects on my mind to little avail. I knew those weapons, each and every one, and as the Grimm came charged up to tear me to pieces I found no will to resist as I dropped my own blade towards the ground, alongside the weapons once wielded by my parents and my sisters and, in another moment, I knew no more.

* * *

I woke up screaming.

Panic. Dread. Fear. Desperation.

Emotions both my own and yet alien flooded my mind in an overwhelming torrent. Gamer's mind faltered, reduced to slowly chipping away at the immense rush of emotions bit by bit rather than quelling them in a moment as my mind churned chaotically. In my panic I only vaguely felt several people enter my room, moving over to me and hugging me gently, whispering soft words I was too panicked to understand.

More people entered the room even I continued screaming words I only half understood "The sky's gone black, why, why, why? We have to stop them, somehow! The Grimm are coming! Rook!" I babbled nonsensically over and over again, faint memories not even my own hijacking my mouth even as the people around me struggled to calm me down.

It took nearly 5 minutes until a combination of gamer's mind and who I now recognized as my mother and several of my sisters managed to mostly calm me down. Panting with tears streaming from my eyes I murmured again, almost mindlessly, my voice coming out more as a whimper "we have to stop them…"

"Shh, Jaune" my mother whispered soothingly "it was just a nightmare, it isn't real" she finished in a gentle voice, hugging me even as my sisters held onto me where they could, my twin sister squeezing one of my hand reassuringly.

Both my mother and the 5 of my sisters currently in the house remained with me for close to half an hour to make sure I was alright, none showing any annoyance at having been woken up at 2 in the morning, their faces still marked with concern even as my mother sent them back to bed.

"It felt so real," I murmured as my mother made to leave "what if it wasn't a dream".

My mother turned around before reassuring me "it was, Jaune, don't worry about it, just try and forget about it and get some sleep" her gentle words sent a wave of despair through my heart even as I smiled tiredly at her and lay back down on my back, apparently returning to bed.

I waited a few minutes after my mother had closed the door before sitting up, staring at the pair of popups that floated ominously in front of me as my heart filled with dread. They had been there when I had calmed down for the most part, and had likely appeared when I first woke up, only to be missed in my panic. Looking more closely at the first one, which was a skill popup, I felt an icy chill shoot through my spine.

* * *

 _ **Rare skill acquired:**_

 _ **Oracle (passive) lv 5: The nature of a soul is something that exceeds the trappings of the physical world. One of the greatest and rarest examples of this is presented in the form of an Oracle. In a moment when numerous souls cry out at once as they are extinguished at the hands of some great terror, the souls of these people ever so rarely unite for but a fleeting moment. In this moment the souls momentarily bleed together and emit a vision of such power and urgency that it surpasses time and space, created from the raging emotions of thousands and sent out by the inconceivable power of countless souls united in a single action. Receiving one of these insights to the future is far from common and while larger Aura reserves and greater control over said reserves do increase the odds of receiving an Oracle slightly, even the greatest of hunters and huntresses have only a paltry chance of receiving even a single Oracle in their greatly extended lifetimes. Oracles are rare to the extent that many don't believe they occur and due to the nature of these prophetic visions they are often decried as mere dreams or delusions.**_

 _ **5% chance to receive a vision of a tragic or horrifying future event following the current course of history.**_

* * *

My heart hammered in my chest as I numbly accepted the popup, my mind already racing to a conclusion I didn't want to make even as I nervously turned my attention to the second popup.

* * *

 _ **Quest: Kingdom in Peril**_

 _ **You have received an Oracle of an impending tragedy; stop it at all costs.**_

 _ **Quest Details**_

 _ **The Tragedy: Around 6 years from now, most of Vale will be annihilated by an explosion of questionable nature and immeasurable power and then invaded by Grimm. You are the only one standing between Vale and utter annihilation.**_

 _ **The Culprits: Based on what you gleamed from the fragmented memories you received from a potential future; this event was no accident, it was deliberate, and carried out by human hands.**_

 _ **All Alone: Despite telling your family about how the dream felt real, they -quite understandably- insisted it was only a nightmare and with no proof available you chose to allow yourself to be 'convinced' that it was only a dream. With no help coming it's down to you to stop the destruction of Vale.**_

 _ **Finding a lead: Your garbled insight into the future has revealed a few things: That the explosion might have been the result of a massive black dust explosion and that an organization or group by the name of Rook might have had something to do with it. It isn't much to go by, but it's all you have.**_

 _ **Quest Objectives**_

• _ **Discover who is behind the attack on Vale (Incomplete)**_

• _ **Discover the source of the massive explosion (Incomplete)**_

• _ **Destroy the organization behind the attack (Incomplete)**_

• _ **Save Vale from destruction (Incomplete)**_

 _ **Time remaining: 6 years, 2 months, 3 days, and 11 hours**_

 _ **Quest Success rewards: 2,000,000 Lien, 15 levels, [?] hero title, additional +10 stat points towards all attributes, massive relationship increase with [Vale High Command], large relationship increase with [?], Hated status with [?], Hated status with [?], additional rewards based on Quest performance.**_

 _ **Quest failure: Destruction of Vale, possible character death, deaths of countless innocents, possible death of family members, extreme negative impact to remaining 3 kingdoms, additional negatives based on quest performance.**_

* * *

My heart froze in my chest as my worst fear was realized beyond the point of denial. From a purely logical standpoint I had already known the moment I finished reading about my oracle skill, even though I tried to ignore and deny it there was no point in deluding myself anymore. Gamer's mind staved off any panic with casual ease, even my most rampant emotions doing little to challenge it. It had, after all, taken what I imaged to be the combine panic and fear of the several hundred thousand people that called Vale home poured into my mind in a single moment to overwhelm it for even a handful of minutes after all.

Without waiting another moment, I opened my menu and instantly dumped all of my available stat points into INT and WIS leaving both at around 33 post modifiers.

* * *

 **By realizing the gravity of the situation ahead and acting to maximize your ability to properly prepare and respond to an important event your WIS and INT have increase by 3.**

* * *

"okay make that roughly 36 after modifiers" I murmured to myself listlessly, my head throbbing painfully as my brain adjusted to the sudden increase in my mental abilities. A few moments later and I now possessed mental abilities around 50% greater than they had been mere minutes ago. I had already possessed above average intelligence for my age so at this point I was probably in the process of beating the bell curve in the face for my age group. Unfortunately, that was only for my age group and my mental abilities still fell behind most adults and seeing as my apparent opponent was a likely well-funded, powerful underworld organization I was nowhere near smart enough to even hope to thwart them as I was.

I had to get smart enough to figure this whole thing out and strong enough to stop it from occurring. My mind whirled as a possible solution came to the front of my mind, one which I set aside even as I struggled to come up with a different plan. I couldn't deny training at signal would be slow and ineffective in regards to growth, 6 years at the rate I was growing wouldn't be even close to enough and my mother would easily notice if I went out on my own to hunt Grimm for level ups and proficiency growth. After nearly an hour of running through countless dead-end plans later and I was forced to acknowledge the one plan I thought might work yet wanted to avoid with all my heart.

While my mother would indeed notice if I went hunting for Grimm on my own, she would only do so when I returned home, where her experience and sharp eyes would allow her to notice the telltale signs of combat that I wouldn't be able to hide or cover up at my current skill level. Yes, she would notice it then, but only if I actually returned. The idea that I logically knew was probably my best bet was also one that was the emotional equivalent of a knife to the heart; running away from home. I loved my family, even if they coddled me too much, and the idea of running away and not seeing them for 6 entire years filled me with dread. Yet for all I would miss them, the idea that it if didn't, that if I stayed and risked another plan, they could die, was something that chilled me to the very core.

I was going to run away. There was no question about it, no matter how much it hurt me I knew I couldn't allow my family to come to harm. It was actually feasible too, my inventory allowing me to carry vast quantities of supplies and my gamer ability and traits allowing me to survive and thrive in the face of adversity. Even without instruction I could still advance my skill in combat and information gathering just by using them, and by getting into actual fights with some level of risk I would be able to become strong enough to possibly stop that terrible future from ever occurring. No, not possibly, I would stop it from happening. No matter how much I had to put myself through or how far I had to go, I was not going to stop until my family was safe.

* * *

-1 month later-

It was with a bitter frown that Jaune Arc acknowledged there was now little left to justify delaying his departure any further. He had enough food and water stored in his inventory for several months, along with any other equipment he thought he might need as well as Crocea Mors stored in his inventory and ready to be equipped at a moment's notice. Contrary to what Jaune had initially believed, he did not need to find a weapon to replace Crocea Mors. That idea had been swiftly shot in the face, as soon as he bothered to use Observe on the sword and shield combo, that is.

* * *

 **Crocea Mors (Legendary)**

 **Blade:**

 **Durability: Indestructible**

 **Base attack: D-**

 **DEX attack rate scaling: S**

 **STR attack scaling: S**

 **Sword mastery general scaling: S**

 **Luck critical attack scaling: A**

 **Aura channeling efficiency: S**

 **Special attributes:**

 **-Grimmsbane: +50% armor penetration and damage to all Grimm**

 **-Arc Family Legacy: -80% total attack damage when wielded by someone not born or inducted into the Arc family, the sword has an uncanny tendency to return into the possession of a member of the Arc family whenever lost or stolen through a series of almost unnatural coincidences.**

 **-? [Locked]**

 **-? [Locked]**

* * *

 **Shield-sheathe:**

 **Durability: Indestructible**

 **DEX parrying scaling: S**

 **STR stability scaling: S**

 **INT soul magic defense scaling: S**

 **Shield mastery general scaling: S**

 **Special attributes:**

 **-Unfaltering: completely nullifies physical damage on successful blocks**

 **-Arc Family Legacy: becomes extremely unwieldy and difficult to use when wielded by someone not born or inducted into the Arc family, this sheathe-shield combo has an uncanny tendency to return into the possession of a member of the Arc family whenever lost or stolen through a series of almost unnatural coincidences.**

 **-? [Locked]**

 **-? [Locked]**

* * *

As it turned out his family heirloom wasn't so much a bad weapon as he was a horrible wielder. While the blade's base damage was less than a kitchen knife, it had unbelievable damage scaling for its associated stats and would undoubtedly be a top-notch weapon in the hands of even a mediocre huntsman. It was only his pathetic stats and swordsmanship that had resulted in an apparently subpar weapon performance.

So here he was sitting on his bed, awake at least an hour past his bedtime and trying to mentally make himself run away. Now was the perfect time, his sisters had gone to sleep rather early and both his parents weren't home at the time: his father out hunting and his mother staying overnight in Patch after attending his older sister Jane's graduation ceremony at Signal. A chance like this wouldn't come again, and no matter how much he hated it Jaune couldn't leave this opportunity alone.

Gritting himself Jaune opened up his window and scale easily down from his second floor room, moving across the yard before stopping. Taking one last longing look at the familiar house where he had grown up and made so many good memories in, Jaune let out a breath before disappearing into the woods near his home.

He would not return for many years.

* * *

Slipping through the woods Jaune made quick progress away from his home, Jaune fiddled through his menu removing Crocea Mors from his inventory and attaching the blade to his hip with a familiarity and grace that surprised him. Even as pangs of sadness attacked him another part of him quivered in anticipation. He was alone, about to face immeasurable odds to save the kingdom he called home, going to face death a thousand times in hopes of coming out the victor and yet, in some way, he felt alive. For all that he would give it all up in a heartbeat to remain with family, it was only now as he readied himself to face oblivion that a sense of unprecedented awareness and focus filled his mind. Jaune allowed a bitter smile to cross his face for a moment as he slipped through the darkened woods.

"Of a different breed huh… so it seems" he murmured to himself, his words wreathed in melancholy.

His gamer ability did not thrust some new nature upon him, it merely revealed and interpreted what already was. He had been born for clashes of blood and chaos, born to stand alongside death to give and one day be given unto it. It was as startling a revelation as it was expected, some familiar alien thing that he had unknowingly known all his life, a revelation that carried with it the weight of a man who had seen all the world's wonders and then opened his eyes for the first time. This revelation wasn't rung out arduously by fierce introspection nor a deep cultivated understanding, no, instead it had come eagerly, as the safety nets that had wrapped themselves around him from the moment he was born faltered and faded for the first time. He was more than half an hour's run through the woods away from home, and far beyond running back for help.

Even as this revelation surged through his mind and began to settle Jaune found himself drawing Crocea Mors, acting on some strange instinct that existed beyond sight or sound, yet with it his blood surged and boiled, seeping with vitality and life he had never known. When the Beowolf burst from the bushes ahead of him, it's blood red eyes locking onto him with a growl, something within Jaune breathed deeper still as his newfound focus rose to even greater heights. Facing death for the first time, in a fight that both of his parents, all his sisters, and himself a mere half an hour ago would think beyond him, Jaune found only serenity.

 **«Beowolf Lv 16»**

Pitch black and covered in bone plate, at least half again Jaune's height, the Beowolf charged at him, roaring as it demanded blood and death even an easy grin settled itself on Jaune's face. His shield up, Jaune moved diagonally forwards and right of the Beowolf approaching him even as it swung his claws down in an attack that he easily noted would cripple or even kill him instantly if it connected, aura or not.

It didn't connect.

Sweeping aside the Beowolf's attack with his shield and rotating slightly, leeching off the force of the blow, he swung his blade at its exposed arm, leaving a respectable gash even as he moved behind the Beowolf, dodging past it and gaining a few yards of distance before twirling to face the Grimm. Techniques that had been shown and explained to him, over and over, yet had remained as vague theoreticals beyond his ken now flowed like water, natural and unimpeded.

The Beowolf roared, incensed by its injury and still hungry for blood, charging at him again, now aiming to bite his throat out even as Jaune shifted to the left this time, collapsing his shield and jabbing the mecha-shifting sheathe towards the beast's gaping jaw even as he swung his blade, warding off the Beowolf's uninjured arm as it attempted to tear his torso to shreds. Just as the sheathe neared the Beowolf's mouth Jaune again shifted the sheathe into a shield, springing it open just as it entered the beast's maw, causing the heirloom to snap opened with violent force, tearing the beast's jaw open just a few inches beyond its natural limit with a wet crack before slipping free of the beast's mouth, the shield's smooth contours letting it free of the Beowolf's mouth as the beast recoiled in agony; it's jaw hanging open unnaturally. Missing no opening, Jaune's blade tore into its injured arm, widening the bleeding gash even further before slipping away on the same side, free from risk of an instant counter.

The Beowolf turned to face Jaune once more, hobbling awkwardly on its heavily injured limb, it's once fearsome roar now awkward and stilted in light of its broken jaw. This time Jaune is the one who charges, bearing down on a beast nearly twice his size fearlessly as it struggles to bring forth a worthy retaliation.

The beast fails.

Again, Crocea Mors tears into flesh as the beast's remaining uninjured arm meets only air as Jaune slips to the beast's injured side, finding no threat in its ruined Jaw as he swings his blade down on the beast's injured limb, cleaving cleanly through it and severing the offending limb as the beast loses its balance and topples onto the ground awkwardly.

Moving instinctively, Jaune shifted behind the beast and -aiming at the back of its neck- stabbed downwards with all the strength of his arms and all the weight of his body, puncturing the creature's neck and sinking his blade several inches into the ground below. The beast jerks one last time, then lies still. Without a thought Jaune withdrew the blade from the beast with a smooth motion, returning to his combat stance in a heartbeat, remaining alert for a few moments before the Beowolf began to disintegrate and, with a start, Jaune realized the fight was over.

Sheathing his blade and attaching the sheathe to his hip once more Jaune blinks, becoming aware of the soreness in his arms and the fierce beating of his heart as he drew slightly ragged breaths. The beast had been stronger than him. Stronger just as it was faster and more durable and yet, he had won. A moment passed as the surge of vitality and life that had overcome him receded, lessening but not disappearing. Remaining an ember in his heart, in his soul, ready to surge up into a roaring fire once more when called.

As his heartbeat slowed he turned his attention to several popup screens that had appeared shortly after the end of his fight with the Beowolf and began working through them.

* * *

 **You have had a deep revelation about yourself and your innate nature allowing you to become more at peace and in tune with yourself, even outside of combat: Malus for combat oriented skill growth outside of battle reduced to a 70% reduction from a 90% reduction. 5 points of Intelligence and Wisdom gained.**

* * *

 **Becoming more in touch with your true nature has granted you increased control over your aura: The skill Aura mastery is now at level 14. Subskill Aura shield is now level 5**

* * *

 **By detecting a hidden opponent before it attacks you have gained the skill Detect presence. Skill folded into Covert arts advanced skill.**

* * *

 **Fighting an opponent far beyond your level has allowed you to shatter the previous limits of your swordsmanship, letting the techniques you previously only knew in theory become something more. Bladed weapon mastery has increase to level 23**

* * *

 **Fighting an opponent far beyond your level has allowed you to shatter the previous limits of your Shield mastery, letting the techniques you previously only knew in theory become something more. Shield mastery has increased to level 26**

* * *

 **Evading attacks from an opponent much faster than you has greatly increased the sureness of your footwork and ability to evade attacks**

 **Evasion has increase to level 21**

* * *

 **Fighting against an opponent in darkness has strengthened your eyesight considerably**

 **Superior eyesight has increase to level 11**

* * *

 **You have grown stronger by pushing yourself beyond your limits. You have gained 2 points of strength.**

 **You have become faster by pushing yourself beyond your limits. You have gained 1 point of Dexterity.**

 **You have challenged fate and come out on top. You have gained 2 points of Luck.**

* * *

 **Lv16 Beowolf has been slain, 21,500 Experience has been gained:**

 **(430 base *5 (trait modifier) *10 (A dance at Death's border) = 21,500)**

 **Congratulations!**

 **you have leveled up!**

 **You are now level 18.**

 **You have 55 stat points to spend.**

* * *

 **You have learned more about your trait** **«Of a different Breed»!**

 **Value of bonus experience gain based on danger level revealed!**

 **-A glimpse of Death (battle with slight risk of death) (2x Exp. & skill mastery)-**

 **-A brush with death (battle with minor risk of death) (4x Exp. & skill mastery)-**

 **-A meeting with death (battle with moderate risk of death) (6x Exp. & skill mastery)-**

 **-A dance at death's border (battle with high risk of death) (10x Exp. & skill mastery)-**

* * *

"level 18?" Jaune mumbled in dull disbelief pausing for a moment, Jaune opened his status page to check his stats.

* * *

 _ **Name: Jaune Arc**_

 _ **Age: 9 years**_

 _ **Aging rate: 77% standard human rate**_

 _ **Lv: 18**_

 _ **Health: 2548 [100%]**_

 _ **Health regen: 1.66% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)**_

 _ **Aura: 5198 [100%]**_

 _ **Aura regen: 1.77% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)**_

 _ **Vitality: 44 (75)**_

 _ **Endurance: 39 (66)**_

 _ **Strength: 39 (66)**_

 _ **Dexterity: 34 (58)**_

 _ **Intelligence: 47 (80)**_

 _ **Wisdom: 45 (77)**_

 _ **Stat points: 55**_

 _ **Luck: ?**_

 _ **Charisma: ?**_

* * *

Jaune simply stared at his status for a moment a grin growing on his face, before it suddenly faltered and died. A look of grim determination crossed his face as quickly allocated 28 of his stat points into intelligence and wisdom, leaving them both at a raw value of 59, which gave him a modified value of 100 for both. Jaune waited a moment as his thought processed grew faster and more focused before promptly splitting his remaining stat points into endurance and dexterity (13 into the former and 14 into the latter) before setting off into the woods.

Despite his progress Jaune once again felt the sheer enormity of the task ahead of him. If his true opponent were Grimm then his progress would have been heartening, but against humans? It was only damning. An underground organization with the ability to create and detonate a bomb of the size he had seen in his oracle was in no way small fry, and while his gamer ability and bullshit trait accelerated his progress he had six years to accomplish what his opponents may very well have had decades or even centuries to accomplish. A plan to topple a whole kingdom stank of decades of planning and manipulating, something fully within the time allowed to strong aura users.

Aura had the effect of slowing down aging, but it had been proven that this didn't kick in until a person was around 18 years old, prior to which they would age normally. His mother, an A-rank huntress who had admitted to being unable to break past the barrier into S-rank looked maybe 24 years old at most, despite being more than 50 years old. That meant she had physically aged only 6 years in the 35 or so years that had passed since she turned 18. Her average rate of aging during that time was less than 1/5 the rate of a normal person's and it was undoubtedly higher now, considering she has undoubtedly strengthened her aura even further since then. Seeing as his mother had married into the Arc family she shouldn't possess the additional 10% aging rate reduction of the Arc bloodline, meaning her level of Aura mastery had to be higher than the equivalent of level 80 mastery, assuming the skill scaled consistently without spiking at higher levels. Ergo her base stats should be boosted by more than 400% and yet despite that she is still not considered at the level of an S-rank huntress. In fact, depending on if his mother had been being humble or not, she was apparently only slightly above average as far as A-ranks go, with as many other A-rankers stronger than her as there were weaker.

The number of S-rank hunters alive can be counted on both hands with fingers left over, the number of A-rank hunters on the other hand was estimated to be around three hundred globally. A plot that, barring his successful interference, succeeded in destroy an entire kingdom probably has a least 1 person with at least A-rank strength behind it, if not several. That meant that in 6 years he had to reach A-rank equivalent strength at a minimum if he was to have any chance at pulling this off and saving his home. While his trait gave him a chance it wasn't going to be easy by any sense of the word, nor would it be without risk, or rather it couldn't be without risk. Unlike other people, he couldn't simply decide 'okay I'm going to train for 5 hours' he would have to find an opponent and fight it, truly fight it, for his trait to kick in. It was something he understood intrinsically, if he wasn't putting his all into a fight he would progress the same way he would outside of combat, something that meant he couldn't just find some poor Beowolf to use as a training dummy for hours on end. It didn't matter if he could learn 5 times as fast if he was only able to train for 1/5 the time.

He would have to deliberately seek out fights against opponents that genuinely stood a chance at killing him to take advantage of his traits higher bonuses, such as the 'dance at death's border' ten-fold experience multiplier he had gotten in his fight with the Beowolf. It was why he had so hap-hazardously spent all his stat points the second he had gotten them, rather than saving them. If he had kept them they would have become a safety net, something that blunted the danger he faced, that he could use to suddenly become stronger or faster or smarter in a mere moment to get out of a pinch. He, ironically, couldn't afford safety nets if he wanted to stand an actual chance. He had to take risks, to throw himself into danger, to meet death head on again and again so he could stop its scythe when it truly mattered most.

On top of this he had to figure out who exactly was behind the incident, whether it was that organization -Rook- or something else, where they were, and how to stop it all while evading the inevitable pursuit of his family, their friends, and probably any other hunter who was in the know and wanted to earn a quick buck by picking up that runaway and dropping him back on his families' doorstep; probably dooming all of Vale in the process because there was no damn way his family would let him slip away twice. Fortunately, it shouldn't be to the level of random people recognizing him on the streets, his parents had made enough enemies (mostly by being good people, ironically) that they wouldn't risk openly declaring he was missing lest certain unsavory parties target him for revenge or leverage against the Arc family.

Jaune let out a bitter snort as he found himself somewhat grateful to the Winchester family (bull-headed bigots that they were) for the first and likely last time in his life. They, along with a few other super conservative families, were the reason he only had to worry about his parent's hunter friends, close allies, and his own family chasing him down as compared to the entire god-damn Atlesian military (because his father just had to have been on the same hunter team as General James motherfucking Ironwood back in his Beacon days). Even if he grew strong enough to face his parent's friends and allies (a smattering of B-rank plus hunters and huntresses, surprisingly good natured politicians, and quite a few other key figures… oh and an honest to god Valean councilmen, how fun!) any of them who attempted to bring him back by force, diplomacy being an auto-fail for obvious reasons, would do so with the intent to capture him largely unharmed ergo, no real danger and hence shitty experience gain, even if he somehow managed to defeat them. The only exception he could see to that being his oldest sister Mordred (oh god is she going to be pissed at him).

The oldest of the Arc sisters, Mordred was a 23-year-old fully certified B-rank Huntress (having attained B-rank 2 years ago when she was 21, breaking the previous record by an entire year). Unsurprisingly she didn't look a day older than 19 and -like the rest of the female portion of the Arc family- had as much ability in combat as she lacked in anything even remotely resembling domestic skills. Yet despite her unexplainable ability to burn water (a skill shared with the rest of Jaune's sisters and their mother) and her rather brash, tomboyish attitude she was the one who largely raised him and his twin sister Joan for a good portion of their early life. A year or two after he and Joan were born there was a spike in Grimm activity, to the extent that their mother had to come out of retirement and the whole family left their manor behind and temporarily relocated to Vale. Seeing as his parents were out in the field fighting back the Grimm and adult supervision barely to the extent of occasional check-ins by some of their parent's friends, the duty of taking care of her younger siblings largely fell onto Mordred, as the oldest, despite being barely halfway through her teens at the time.

Long story short, she somehow ended up coming to dote on Jaune in her typical brash, tomboyish manner. Unfortunately, with this came the tendency to be excessively overprotective towards his general well-being, matched only by (oddly enough) his own twin sister in her excessive awareness of his well-being. Of course, Mordred's style of overprotectiveness was markedly different, tinged with what could only be called a demented combination of maternal instinct and the tendencies of a teenager (female) whose favorite activity for stress release was massacring Grimm with a massive great sword longer than she was tall. Basically, she had a sweat now so you don't bleed later mentality. Mordred wasn't overprotective in the coddling sense (usually), she was overprotective in the 'I'm going to kick your ass now so you don't do something stupid and get yourself hurt later' sense. Oh, and sometimes in the 'who the hell are you and why are you looking at my baby brother, I'm going to glare at you until you wet yourself' sense around most (usually innocent) strangers. Hence, it could be said that Jaune's eldest sister typically acted in a manner halfway between an Atlesian Sheppard guard dog and an overprotective mother. He wouldn't be surprised if she decided to break both his legs so he couldn't run away and get hurt if she caught him and then proceed to fret over his every need (save for the one to go and stop Vale from exploding).

Jaune found himself wondering if it was his newfound intelligence that was causing him to wonder how exactly Mordred was still considered relatively normal in their family.

His whole family was overprotective to some extent and he certain that they would be completely beside themselves with worry by noon tomorrow -cue stabbing guilt- so Jaune decided to try and keep his training methods as far away from any recording devices as possible (the knowledge that he was deliberately throwing himself into near death experiences to learn would probably give half his family heart attack. A heart attack that they would quickly recover from (because Aura) and then proceed to throw literally everything to the side and go manhunting for him (which they admittedly might do anyway). He didn't want them to worry but it was a simple fact that this was the only way he would progress.

He understood the fact that an opponent like a Beowolf would never provide gains anything close to what he'd gotten today again, seeing as most of his skill increases had come from finally comprehending things he'd known but never truly understood. His skill mastery levels were probably the most unconventional part of his ability, seeing as they aligned more closely with normal progress (not my-life-is-a-fucking-videogame progress). While swinging a sword in the exact same way a hundred thousand times would level up his sword mastery (something that admittedly wouldn't work for others) learning and trying to understand it would level up the skill mastery much faster, which was probably the reason mastery level had no experience or progress bar. Additionally, rather than the stereotypical, boost to attack rate or damage he simply got better with the sword, no differently from someone without the gamer ability learning swordsmanship. It was something that applied to almost all his skills apart from the ones that could be properly quantified, even disregarding his Gamer ability.

Mind still whirling Jaune glanced around him for a moment before using his newfound physical prowess to jump up to a tree branch before beginning to make his way through the tree tops. It was slower than running -even with his boosted dexterity and 3-dimensional movement skill- but it wouldn't leave any footprints and proficiency in the skill was too potentially useful not to level up as quickly as possible. At high enough levels, it would give him a massive advantage in most environments, both in combat and in escape from pursuers when necessary. Plus, it wasn't a combat skill so he could grind it outside of combat, even if doing it during battle would give him a fancy experience bonus.

On that note, seeing as his trait pointedly gave a 400% bonus to all skills during combat didn't that mean he could get better at those faster by practicing while something was trying to kill him? Putting aside the mental image of him sewing a sweater while dodging a pack of Beowolves as they attempted to tear him limb from limb, Jaune paused on a tree branch looking around and grimacing slightly before steeling himself. As countless pairs of red eyes appeared in the trees around him Jaune Arc allowed himself the privilege of a one-liner before getting to work.

"Sloths… of all the things to try and kill me en masse… Sloths…" the 9-year-old mumbled as dozens of sloth-like Grimm descended on him.

* * *

Despite his initial freak-out, the sloth Grimm had fortunately proven to be less of a threat than the Beowolf: partially due to his rapid skill growth and partially because they were mostly below level 10. Unfortunately, Jaune's ability had apparently decided to screw him over.

* * *

 **Congratulations, due to the fulfillment of certain parameters, the skill** **«** **3-dimensional movement** **»** **has evolved into the advanced tier skill** **«** **3-dimensional combat technique** **». Skill «** **3-dimensional combat technique** **» is now level 23.**

* * *

"Son of a bitch!" Jaune roared, not at all amused by the fact that a skill he had intended to grind outside of combat had evolved into something he could only grind inside combat.

Even the 2 level ups he had received from the fight wasn't enough to offset the foreboding feeling that any skill he used while in combat would spontaneously evolve into a combat skill. Making a strong mental note to never dance or do housework while fighting, Jaune half of his 10 stat points into dexterity and the other half into endurance before continuing to move through the treetops.

As he continued through the treetops he was slightly mollified by the fact that the « **3-dimensional combat technique** **»** skill was an advanced tier skill in more than just name, judging by his considerably higher level of mobility. Although his general movement skill had increase somewhat, he could literally feel the fact that this was now a combat skill. Rather than simply movement across all three dimensions it now seemed to encompass combat worthy awareness, proper footing for attacks and evasion, and a few other things in regards to all three dimensions that clearly set it apart from a non-combat movement skill.

It also confirmed the fact that different tiers of skills existed and that they effected how good someone was at doing something. Seeing as he had already had his dancing, housework, and covert arts unique and advanced tier skills when he first acquired his gaming ability he couldn't use them as a gauge to just what an advanced or unique skill was, skill effect wise. Basing it on the change in his movement skill, an advance skill was probably around 20% better than its basic equivalent, i.e. at level 20 it would be equivalent to the normal skill at level 24 or so. Of course, this still left the open question as to how many quality tiers there were: Although he knew there was at least 2 and that they applied in both directions, good and bad.

The root of this knowledge is the fact that at least 5 of his 7 sisters (the ones whose stat sheets he had seen) all had the following skill at varying levels:

* * *

 _ **Homewrecker (literally) lv*: (abysmal tier skill) You have mastered the legendary arts of burning water, breaking the washing machine without doing anything but press buttons, and somehow managing to make rooms dirtier while trying to clean them. You are completely incapable of properly doing anything even remotely relating to housework, any attempt in doing so inevitably results in chaos and food that would give Cthulhu a headache. Live under the shame of knowing that the only reason you ever eat something other than fast food and takeout is because your baby brother is capable of cooking.**_

* * *

It had been somehow comforting to know that his Gamer abilities' descriptions were just universally insulting, rather than only towards him. Regardless, he wasn't sure if abysmal was the negative equivalent of unique, considering there was no convenient comparison chart to inform him of the exact-

Jaune's line of thought was promptly cut off and murdered as a popup appeared barely an inch in front of his face nearly making him miss his next jump. Barely recovering Jaune glared at the popup (which now floated innocently nearby, as if it hadn't just jump scared him). Jaune twitched.

* * *

 **Congratulations! For making an intelligent conjecture on the nature of your skill masteries the skill tier list is now available. You have also gained 1 point of intelligence and wisdom.**

* * *

"Smart ass" Jaune complained, stopping firmly before sighing and opening the new tab.

* * *

 **Skill Tiers: grants an effect multiplier to skill based on tier, allowing effects exceeding the lv 100 mastery limit. The tier of a skill can be altered by passing certain parameters (revealed after tier acquisition). Some skills interact uniquely with tier levels by, for example, limiting max level based on tier level.**

 **Abominable tier: bad to a level that should not be physically possible, -200% skill effect correction**

 **Abysmal tier: bad to an almost unbelievable level, -150% skill effect correction**

 **Horrible tier: bad to an extreme level, -100% skill effect correction**

 **Awful tier: bad to an uncommonly great level, -50% skill effect correction**

 **Bad tier: worse than most people, but not cripplingly so. -25% skill effect correction**

 **Standard tier: average, no skill effect correction**

 **Advanced tier: better than most, +25% skill effect correction**

 **Expert tier: uncommonly good, +50% skill effect correction**

 **Elite tier: extremely good, +100% skill effect correction**

 **Unique tier: good to an almost unbelievable level, +150% skill effect correction**

 **Godly tier: Good to a level that should not be physically possible, +200% skill effect correction.**

* * *

Jaune simply stared at the screen for a moment "that explains so much…" and it did, judging by correlations it meant that all his sisters had an effective cooking level in the negatives, seeing as abysmal tier level would, for example, make a level 30 into an effective negative 15 skill mastery. Worst part is, the more they practiced the worse they would get... well disregarding the fact that Jaune apparently had an effective housework mastery level of 127, the tier system could be super bad news. Scratch could be, it was undoubtedly super bad news, even if it did answer a lot of questions.

"Shit… Shit! Shit! Shit!" Jaune mumbled even as he set off through the dark woods again; hysteria held back only by desperate determination and his Gamer's mind skill. "If tiers apply to random skills they should apply to combat skills as well!"

Expert tier was only at the level of being uncommonly good, and with it came a 50% skill correction, applied to something like swordsmanship or -god forbid- aura mastery meant even level 100 mastery of the standard tier skill would fall behind people in the late 60's and above of the higher tier skill.

"God damn it!" Jaune roared in frustration. Leveling up a skill was one thing, with enough grit and determination (and risk of horrible injury, death, etc.) it could be done, but completing some random unlisted parameters? Sure, he might stumble on them but that wasn't something he could manage with sheer grit and determination. But…. He couldn't afford to fail; he would have to keep trying regardless of how increasingly shitty the odds of success were. As if in response to his grim determination a window popped up in front of him.

* * *

 **Quest: Breaking the limit**

 **New information has reveal that the road to power is even longer and more uncertain then it appears, level the playing field, or die trying.**

 **Quest details:**

 **With the unveiling of the secret behind skill tier levels, standard skill levels are not going to cut it.**

 **The method of reaching higher tiers relies on meeting unlisted and unknown parameters.**

 **Primary Quest objectives**

 **Raise Aura mastery up to at least an Elite tier skill (incomplete)**

 **Raise at least 4 other combat skills to at least Elite tier (incomplete)**

 **Time remaining: Until final showdown with ?.**

 **Success rewards: 2,000,000 experience, 5 proficiency levels in all combat skills Elite tier and above, A-rank combat prowess is a feasible goal.**

 **Quest Failure results: Disappointment, A-rank combat prowess extremely difficult to attain, high chance of Kingdom in Peril quest leading to character death.**

* * *

Tapping the accept button mindlessly Jaune quickly selected his newly evolved skill, intent on checking what the parameters were for its rank up from standard level.

* * *

 **3-dimensional combat (advanced tier)**

 **Parameters cleared for current tier:**

 **-level 20 skill mastery (cleared)**

 **-win a battle while using the «3-dimensional movement» skill (cleared)**

 **Parameters for next tier:**

 **-Unknown**

 **-Unknown**

 **-Unknown**

* * *

"well that's useless," Jaune murmured, only knowing what he had to do after he'd already done it was no help whatsoever…. Although "Just judging by the first parameter I'd hazard a guess that the first parameter requirement is getting the skill to level 40" he murmured. Half a second later a popup appeared in front of him, confirming his conjecture.

* * *

 **Parameter discovered: level 40 skill mastery (Incomplete)**

* * *

Jaune quickly flipped through his menu, selecting his aura skill and bringing up its parameters

* * *

 **Aura mastery**

 **Parameters for next tier**

 **-Unknown**

 **\- Aura reserves exceeding 3000 (complete)**

* * *

"oh gee, let me guess, level 20 skill mastery" Jaune grumbled, hazarding a guess at the other unknown parameter.

* * *

 **Parameter discovered: Level 20 skill mastery (incomplete)**

* * *

"yup" Jaune murmured, a bit of relief seeping into his voice before he frowned again. While lower level tier ups seemed easy enough, Jaune had no doubt that they would only get increasingly complex and convoluted as he went up the ranks. Getting Aura mastery to elite level would require 2 more tier ups after this one that would likely be exponentially more difficult. On top of that he was going to try and get bladed weapon mastery, shield mastery, and evasion up to the highest tier he could, seeing as they represented his primary combat methods. Speaking of which…

* * *

 **Bladed weapon mastery**

 **Parameters for next tier:**

 **-level 20 skill mastery (complete)**

 **\- Unknown (57/500)**

* * *

 **Shield mastery**

 **Parameters for next tier:**

 **-level 20 skill mastery (complete)**

 **\- Unknown (62/500)**

* * *

 **Evasion**

 **Parameters for next tier:**

 **-Level 20 skill mastery (complete)**

 **\- Unknown (54/500)**

* * *

"Huh. Least I'm apparently making some progress" Jaune murmured "looks like the parameters should have something to do with successful evasions, shield parries, and attacks with a bladed weapon"

 **Parameter discover-**

"yeah, yeah, yeah I get it" Jaune grumbled, closing the windows without reading them "okay step in the right direction, looks like this might not be as bad as I thought"

* * *

 **For tempting fate despite the already horrible odds stacked against you, you have gained 5 points of luck. You'll need it.**

* * *

Jaune twitched "not even going to dignify that with a response" he murmured closing the popup.

Seeing as he was finally clear of all distractions -for the moment- Jaune picked up his pace as much as he could, having already plotted out his general course days in advance. Rather than heading to Vale to start compiling information, Jaune was heading further into the wilderness, away from Vale. In a turn that was quickly becoming less ironic and more a simple fact of his life, it was simply too risky to start with information gathering inside of the largely threat free city. He currently wasn't strong or fast enough to escape students at the level of most signal academy students, getting anywhere close to the headmaster of Beacon (yet another of his parent's friends) would only result in him getting dragged back to the (temporary) safety of the Arc manor, especially considering his rather low covert arts skill. As it was, with his stupidly large aura reserves, someone like Ozpin or any of the other teachers at beacon would spot him half a mile away by his aura signature alone.

A chill ran down his spine and he halted on a branch glancing around and drawing Crocea Mors, leaving the shield in sheathe form to keep his other hand free. "more Grimm huh" he murmured even as the creatures surrounded him "don't want to risk leaving a trail behind… fortunately I doubt they'd link Grimm tracks to me, without bloodstains and a corpse to indicate my demise anyway, so if I don't touch the ground it's probably fine." Jaune paused, looking at the totally harmless forest floor before snorting "The floor is lava, huh?"

Setting aside thoughts of the uncertain future for the moment, Jaune allowed himself to focus entirely on the impending battle, finding a grin stretching across his face once more as shadowy figures closed in on him, likely attracted by his constant surging of negative emotions. The beasts closed in, and the ember smoldering in his heart flickered then surged, burning irrepressibly as he readied himself to face death once more.

"It's going to be a long night" The 9-year-old murmured, his tone quivering in a manner than might have been mistaken for terror… if not for the nigh maniacal grin stretched across his face "well, just another dance at death's border, I guess."

* * *

 **Prologue: The first Dance: End.**

 **A/N**

 **Hi everybody. I know I haven't updated my other stories for some time but my muse is being a bit finicky right now. I know where I want to go with the stories but I'm having a little bit of trouble getting from point A to point B, so to speak. It's a problem I will admit to having as a writer; I think up a bunch of good scenes or story arcs (or I hope they're good at least) and then struggle to properly connect them together. Seriously, in my story Gamer's guide to the underworld, I have literally multiple arcs largely formed in my head, but literally all of them are after Kokabiel's shenanigans are over and done with. In fact, I have several points of that Arc planned; a fact that does me nothing while I'm agonizing over how I want to properly introduce more of the future main cast without messing up a reveal and twist I've been excited about ever since I thought of it. Suffice to say I'm not abandoning my other stories, just taking a bit of a break from them as I am forcibly bent to my muses will.**

 **Anyway, this story is a plot bunny that has been bugging me for quite some time now, distracting me from thinking about my other stories incessantly, as you might guess by this 11k monster (well, monster by my standards at least). Part of the inspiration comes from a couple of quests I ended up reading on spacebattles, specifically Crossycross's** _ **Price of Power**_ **quest and Iandude0's** _ **Lords Among the ashes**_ **quest, which both share a common point of Jaune growing at a rate directly proportionate to how much effort the world around him is putting in to try and murder/enthusiastically maul him. I ended up getting the thought of that concept combined with a Gamer style story stuck in my head and it all started coming together from there.**

 **In my opinion the fact that Jaune needs to take risks, that he can't afford safety nets, and that taking it slowly isn't an option will hopefully mitigate some of the things I find take some of the tension and excitement out of Gamer stories. Most prominently the whole, I'm going to save a fuck ton of stat points to make a built-in Deus-ex-Machina plot device thing. It's not like I don't understand why writers use it, it is genuinely a smart thing for a character to hold in reserve, but I still feel like it saps a lot out of a story when a character is apparently struggling against something, and all the while they have over a 100 attribute points laying around. So, my solution to this was the fact that Jaune's growth would genuinely be impeded by safety nets such as these.**

 **It should be noted that his somewhat excessive battle lust will fade for the most part with time, it's mainly just him working off years' worth of buildup and trying to distract himself from the fact that he's running away from home.**

 **Fair warning, the world of remnant has been majorly buffed in regards to power levels. Ozpin (unsurprisingly one of the handful of S-rank hunters in existence), for example, is fully capable of stopping a speeding freight train with nothing but his aura and sheer brute force. Adding insult in injury, Ozpin is primarily an agility type, who considers his physical strength to be one of his** _ **weak**_ **points. Of course, this buff applies to the Grimm too (oh hello there Mr. Kaiju, how's the weather up there?)**

 **Primary differences compared to most other gamer stories are as follows:**

 **-Single player : between the danger Jaune is facing, his desire to be the one doing the protecting rather than the one being protected, and simply the fact that he would be hard pressed to prove a crisis he knows is real was anything more than a child's nightmare means he isn't going to be getting any party members any time soon. If he does end up gaining a companion (of which I'm still undecided) they will not directly link up with the game. Jaune will be able to interact with them like an in-game party member with his ability but for them it will merely feel like they are growing stronger normally, albeit at an accelerated rate.**

 **-Skills maxed at level 100: no skill class ups simply by grinding a skill (although that is sometimes part of it) you don't get an entirely new branch of a skill simply by doing the same thing everyone else does better than them, that would be like saying that upon acquiring a 10** **th** **Dan black belt in karate a person spontaneously learns a new and improved martial art, it just doesn't work that way. Skills have higher tiers that can only be attained by managing unorthodox and (beyond the first tier or two up at least) extremely difficult parameters and challenges. For example, Jaune's souped up cooking skill (bu dum tsh) was the result of becoming an extremely competent cook despite his mother (who has a lv 94,** **Abominable tier housework skill because lol) being the one to teach him cooking, amongst other household chores.**

 **-Nerfed Combat recovery: During combat health and Aura recovery rates suffer a massive 90% malus, meaning Jaune's resting aura recovery rate of (currently) 2% per minute is dropped to a measly .2% per minute during combat. With Jaune's wisdom at around 100 and half of the recovery rate coming from the base rate of 1% regen a minute, to get an in-combat recovery rate of 1% a minute would require an effective 900 wisdom score. The funny thing is, Jaune's aura regeneration rate would already be considered quite fast, both due to Jaune's massive aura reserves (for his level) and the fact that most people recover at a flat rate rather than a proportion of their max reserves.**

 **-It's a semblance, not admin hacks: Jaune's gamer ability can't warp the laws of reality, it is something that's primary effect is restricted to Jaune himself. That means no random money drops or materials from Grimm, nor unexplainable hax potions. This also means that skill mastery level effects Jaune's actual ability at something, a high covert arts skill doesn't make a shitty lie more convincing, it would just let him think of a better and more convincing one. Jaune is also the only one with a numerical health value, everyone else just has a health bar denoting their general wellbeing.**

 **-Levels don't clearly correlate to power: While a higher level is generally better, people other than Jaune are assigned levels by his ability based on the degree of their own potential they have unlocked. It's easier to go from level 10 to level 20 than from level 110 to level 120. Jaune's Gamer ability doesn't assign people levels based on stat values and effective combat strength but rather on how much they've worked to get stronger. It's fully possible for a level 10 to be just as strong as a level 30, even if it is rare. An extremely high level merely means a person has met a large portion of their potential. That said, very few people without great innate talents survive to reach higher levels.**

 **-Aura penetration: An Aura shield is not invincible just because a person has aura remaining. If a certain damage threshold is passed, damage will bleed through and deal Health damage (or rather, a physical injury for anyone other than Jaune).**

 **-Even gods can bleed: And Jaune is not a god, when health points are depleted to zero Jaune's body is reverted to a normal (albeit more durable than most, thanks to his stats) human's meaning he starts getting cut and bleeding like normal, and can be permanently scarred and even crippled.**

 **-Mods disabled: Jaune's gamer ability cannot create abilities or traits that are not possible for a conventional person. Jaune's oracle skill, for example, is a genuine ability that others have possessed just like other people possess the incandescent soul trait and hence rapid aura recovery. While he could conceivably make a new skill, it would have to be technically possible even without his gamer ability.**

 **-paved with good intentions: Ironically quite a few of major 'antagonists' in this story are going to be genuinely good people. For all intents and purposes Jaune is a kid running away from home, regardless of the reasons, many of the people who are going to try and stop Jaune are doing so out of both genuine concern for Jaune and because they know his family is worried about him. **


	2. Chapter 1: The First step

**Chapter 1: The first step**

* * *

It had been 3 months since he had left home. 3 measly months, for all that it felt as if just as many years had passed since he had run away. 3 months, in which he had grown stronger than he could have imagined at a rate that put geniuses to shame. For all that it couldn't compare to his first night's progress in sheer explosiveness, he had still managed to shoot up 28 levels, all the way to level 48. Yet for all that progress and growth he couldn't change one unassailable fact.

It hurt.

Not his body, physical pain faded so easily for him now.

Not his mind, his semblance not permitting even the slightest of maladies to take hold in his psyche.

But in his heart, where pain beyond suffering and hurt beyond physical reigned supreme.

He was homesick. For all that that word seemed childish and unworthy of the pain and loss that racked him emotionally. He missed his sister's doting, for all that he would claim to any he despised it. He missed cooking dinner, for all that he had complained about the responsibility falling to him every night. He missed Sapphire or Amethyst approaching him with a sheepish expression to inform him that they had ruined yet another set of their combat outfits he would need to mend for them. He missed his twin sister (older by 3 minutes as she would always declare) and her tendency to treat him like he was made of glass, glaring at classmates and shooing away bugs from him even as he complained that he was fine and that he could take care of himself.

He missed all of it; All the stupid, tiring, pointless, embarrassing, annoying, wonderful antics that had filled his boring, eventless, irreplaceable day to day life.

Yes, he wished he could go back, wished he could return to those eventless days even at the cost of all the progress he had made, and as that wish grew stronger so did his determination. As his wish to go home burned brighter he pushed himself himself to hit just a little harder, to move just a smidgen faster, to make his swordsmanship just a hair sharper. He pushed through pain, defying death again and again so that one day, that simple, insignificant wish could come true.

It was almost funny, in a cruel way, that for all the stories he had heard as a child, about Heroes slaying dragons and rescuing princesses, receiving lavish rewards and everlasting glory, that he wasn't trying to attain anything from his quest; he was merely trying not to lose anything. For all he had once admired those who would give up anything of themselves to protect those they loved, he found, thrust into the same situation, that it wasn't impressive at all, for how could he not throw everything of himself into it? For the first time, he felt like he truly understood the root of a hero's will, of their cowardly courage. It wasn't that they didn't fear death, that they were certain of their victory, or even that pride held importance over even their very lives. The truth was that a hero was running in fear, away from an alternative so terrifying that risking life and limb was a forgone conclusion, if they could only escape from that terrifying possibility.

To lose the people he cared about, to never be allow to talk with them, to never again argue over stupid and pointless things or bicker childishly about things none of them really cared about was something Jaune knew he wouldn't be able to handle. If a measly three months was enough to cause this much agony in his heart, then what would a pain far worse than this feel like? A pain that wouldn't end until the day he died? With such a heart stopping alternative was it any wonder that even innumerable hordes of Grimm seemed so insignificant to him now? That fights with his life (and only his) on the line were nothing more than the ordinary? That the inferno in his soul raged almost nonstop, willing to burn itself out to stop that impermissible alternative?

These were the thoughts running through Jaune Arc's mind even as he flitted through the shadowed treetops, his movements impossibly silent even as he moved at speeds befitting of a huntsman in training 5 years his senior. If someone were to compare his movements now with what they were 3 months ago, just after he had killed his first Grimm, few people would so much as consider that it was the same person. Without a single wasted movement, slipping through the treetops as if they were no more obstructive that an open field, Jaune stalked his prey. Crocea Mors struck out once, twice, three times, before being returned to its sheathe, the whole process no louder than a soft footfall.

* * *

 **Due to eliminating multiple foes in quick succession without being detected, your skill in stealth has increased. Covert arts skill is now level 40.**

* * *

 **Expert usage of multiple dimensions during combat has increased your ability to move swiftly and efficiently. Skill 3-dimensional combat has increased to level 41.**

* * *

 **Congratulations, due to the fulfillment of certain parameters, the skill** **«** **Covert Arts** **»** **has met evolution conditions. Due to sufficient proficiency and tier of the skill** **«** **3-dimensional combat technique** **» fusion evolution conditions have been met. The advanced tier skills «Covert Arts» and«3-dimensional combat technique» have evolved into the expert tier skill «Subversive arts». Skill «Subversive arts» is now level 41.**

* * *

Letting out a deep breath and looking at the dissolving corpses of 3 Beowolves (all firmly in the mid-thirties, level wise) Jaune nodded slightly "not strong enough" he complained, even as he looked at his new skill with a miniscule grin. Jaune wasn't referring to himself nor his new skill, but rather the strength of his would-be opponents. While they were all nearly 20 levels stronger than the Beowolf he had fought to the death against but 3 months prior, he intuitively knew that they would not be enough of a threat to him for it to count as combat for much longer. In fact, it was fully possible the only reason they did even now was because of the method of 'combat' Jaune had chosen.

It was no coincidence that he had killed them all silently in an instant, Jaune had been stalking the trio of Beowolves for almost an hour now, concealing himself and waiting for the perfect opening to kill all three simultaneously. His trait was rather flexible in regards to activation restrictions, rather than requiring open combat as it first appeared, it was more along the lines of requiring presence of danger. So, stalking the Beowolves (that would have attempted to maul him if they noticed him) met the requirements for his growth correction to activate. While it was somewhat unfortunate that his Covert arts skill fusion evolved into what was undoubtedly a combat skill, it was nothing he couldn't work around. Previously he would have been a bit nervous that either his combat ability or general stealth oriented skill would be effected by the evolution, but by this point he was certain skill evolution would never make his ability at something worse than it was prior to evolution.

The fusion evolution of his skills was the common answer regarding the previously unknown 3rd parameter required for the evolution of his 3-dimensional combat technique and his covet arts skill. It made sense, in a manner of speaking, seeing as the more multifaceted a skill was, the higher rank it tended to have, the sheer number of things his housework skill applied to a most apt example. It was like how a person could only go so far with a sword if they didn't have proper footwork, regardless of their swinging of the actual sword their positioning and movement had to be just as good for them to become a master swordsman.

While it was somewhat relieving that he had roughly understood the common evolution conditions for an expert tier skill, the revelation had come with as many issues as it had solved. Case in point, the expert tier fusion evolution for shield mastery and evasion had ended up fusing the two skills into a skill called defensive arts, which encompassed dodging, blocking, and everything in between. He had quickly concluded that this was one of the main things that caused higher level hunters to have such radically different styles. Someone who didn't use a shield would likely have learned some other defensive skills (something along the lines of feinting, counterattacking, or even a technique relating to their semblance) to combine with dodging. This of course meant that his initial plan of simply focusing on dodging, sword mastery and shield mastery combat skills for his elite tier skills was probably not going to work, especially considering that the tier up from expert to elite required the completion of 5 parameters and he wouldn't be surprised if that included a fusion evolution of some type.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts Jaune return is focus to the present as he started to plot out his next move, even as he easily scaled a tree and apparently disappeared into the treetops. Since he had run away he had remained close to Vale, barely a 5-hour trip by bullhead, in order reduce the risk of meeting an extremely powerful Grimm. After all, there was fighting something strong enough to be a threat and then there was fighting something strong enough to kill him instantly. The former would aid his growth whilst the latter wouldn't help anyone. That said, he felt it was time for him to go a bit further away from established humanity at this point, considering his opponents were starting to toe the line between dangerous and pests.

Seeing as he wasn't confident enough in regards to his stealth skills to evade hunters yet he had decided to focus on increasing both by stalking and eliminating stronger Grimm. Of course, this meant moving further away from the cities and villages, meaning food supplies and other amenities would not be as readily available to him in the near future. Jaune had decided to stock up on as much as he could before he traveled further away from Vale; something that was an easier task then what one might have expected.

As it turned out the combination of an unlimited inventory space, an observe skill, and countless miles of untapped natural resources came together into a bit of a cash cow. While actual edible plants could have sustained him well enough, it was the gathering of various medicinal and otherwise valuable plants that gave him a leg up. While most villages were a bit uncomfortable with the idea of buying and selling things from a ten year old with no apparent guardian, they had lived harsh enough lives that they typically decided not to look a gift horse in the face. Admittedly a fair part of that willingness to deal with him might have come from the fact that that gift horse had unlocked aura reserves and was capable of butchering a fully grown Ursa when push came to shove.

He had received a fair bit of lien and had a decent stock of supplies inside his inventory, even if he had yet to find a suitable firearm for himself he was still pretty content in that regard, all things considered. That said he was considering leaving tonight, not wanting to take any risk of his family hearing rumors about a suspicious blonde boy running unaccompanied with a sword. Even if he was at least a week and a half away from Vale by foot (closer to a month for most civilians considering his method of travel was admittedly faster and more direct than most) he still wasn't willing to accept even the slightest unnecessary risk of getting taken back. Weighing his options, he once more examined his status, despite already knowing the contents.

* * *

 _ **Name: Jaune Arc**_

 _ **Age: 10 years**_

 _ **Aging rate: 74% standard human rate**_

 _ **Lv: 48**_

 _ **Health: 6780 [100%]**_

 _ **Health regen: 3.08% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)**_

 _ **Aura: 13416 [100%]**_

 _ **Aura regen: 2.91% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)**_

 _ **Vitality: 110 (198)**_

 _ **Endurance: 116 (209)**_

 _ **Strength: 115 (207)**_

 _ **Dexterity: 117 (211)**_

 _ **Intelligence: 106 (191)**_

 _ **Wisdom: 106 (191)**_

 _ **Stat points: 0**_

 _ **Luck: ?**_

 _ **Charisma: ?**_

* * *

So much progress, mere months after his first real battle and his stats were nearly 10-fold what they had been when he had first received that damned oracle. So much progress and yet, a Beowolf (not even an alpha, even if was probably close) posed a threat to him. A small meager threat yes, but a threat none the less. A Beowolf that even a hundred of wouldn't be enough to scratch his older sister Mordred. Any doubt that his eldest sister was anything below level 100 vanished, in fact he wouldn't have been surprised if she was over level 200 really, and she was still only a relatively inexperienced B-rank huntress, not even close to A-rank prowess yet.

While his sister Sapphire, a 3rd year a signal, was considered talented at only level 28 she was still 7 levels of Lily, the next oldest, who was a measly 2 levels above Amethyst the sister after her on the age bracket. Sapphire wasn't capable of putting even a scratch on Jane, who was only two years older than her, just like Jane couldn't even come close to touching Mordred in a spar. The trend indicated that the lower levels of hunter school were very slow in terms of growth, probably focusing on theoretical aspects, only to pick up exponentially in the later years as it shifted into more hands-on training. Meaning that even at level 48, a whole 20 levels higher than Sapphire he might very well still be weaker than Jane was, meaning he couldn't even count on himself being stronger than the average Beacon initiate. And considering Mordred's stories of how much of a difference even a single year made in regards to a beacon students combat strength, he would most likely be incapable of even escaping a student from the higher grades.

It was an imposing thought that the average beacon student was granted a C-rank combat rating after graduating, the only school on remnant that did so as a standard, rather than for exceptional students. There was a reason why it was considered the best of the best, as far as combat schools went. All things considered Jaune was, at level 48, probably high E-rank at best in regards to combat ability. It had taken a while for Jaune to realized why, despite his heroic lineage trait adding an extra 6 stat points each level, he was still so weak.

Time. The one thing he lacked. For while he and his skill masteries leveled up quickly status gained from training wasn't something his trait effected in the slightest. All hunters in training underwent extensive conditioning and exercise constantly, meaning that they had years' worth of stat gains from training that Jaune simply didn't have. While some would translate into level ups, considering most people didn't have a video game style growth system, Jaune wouldn't be surprised if the growth of his stats through physical training was considerably slower than most people, something mostly negated by his ability to directly level up. While years of training for most people would partially translate into a higher level much of it probably wouldn't, meaning most higher ranking hunter's attributes would be a fair bit higher than what would be expected from their level.

In all likelihood, Jaune would end up being slightly weak for his level, if and when he reached A-rank combat prowess, simply because he did not have time to make up for decades and decades of physical training. This of course meant that simply reaching a level close to his currently unknown opponents was no longer enough, to be safe, he had to be a higher level. While this could be partially negated by putting himself through hellish physical training, working to the point of exhaustion would mean working to the point where he could not hunt Grimm and level up, slowing down his progress more than it would benefit it.

Making a decision that wasn't really a choice, Jaune sighed. Looking in the direction of the village that he had used as a staging point for the last two weeks Jaune steeled himself before taking off the in the opposite direction, further still from the protection and relative safety of Vale.

In what was quickly become a trend for him, he didn't look back.

* * *

"Anything?" A girl pleaded, desperation seeping into her voice as she did so, something that would have freaked out any of her peers had they born witness to it.

"Still nothing, it's been 3 months now and if he were in Vale we would have found him easily enough, but there is still no sign of him." A man replied, his normally jovial voice solemn "I'm sorry Mordred, the headmaster and the rest of teachers are still keeping an eye out but there's simply no sign of your brother. In all likelihood, Vale wasn't his destination, your brother is a smart boy, smart enough that he wouldn't have forgotten his families' ties in Vale."

The girl -Mordred- seemed to deflate for a moment "Damn it all!" she roared suddenly, swinging her arm at the wall as she did so, easily crushing the dust reinforced stone (built to withstand explosives and high caliber gunfire) like it was rotten wood. Her anger and grief surged for another moment before dying out abruptly as she let out a near lifeless sigh "…Thank you professor Port, sorry about the wall" she murmured tiredly.

"It's fine, anything for one of my former students, and I'm sure Glynda won't mind about the wall, considering your circumstances." Beacon's Grimm studies professor replied sadly "As I said, we're still keeping an eye out, if anything indicating your brother's location comes up we'll contact you or your parents immediately."

Mordred Arc simply nodded before she turned to leave, the normally brash and tomboyish huntress looking more like the living dead than the strongest huntress of her generation. Professor Port watched the receding figure of his former student grimly before pulling out his scroll tiredly, glancing at the ruined wall once before dialing one of his colleagues.

"Glynda?" Professor Port began "I- yes I informed her. The third hall down from the headmaster's office, how did you know? Ah I suppose that makes sense, you were one of her teachers as well, after all." Without another word Port heard Glynda hang up.

"….."

Port sighed "no matter the situation I can never seemed to get a word in edgewise" he grumbled lightly, before shaking himself and forcibly returning to his normal Jovial manner, as if nothing was wrong.

Who knows, maybe if he faked it long enough he'd start believing it himself. He wouldn't be the first hunter to try, nor would he be the last, inevitably.

* * *

If you were to ask anyone that knew her, almost all of them would describe Mordred Arc as something akin to a force of nature. While it was true that she couldn't yet face A-rank hunters with any real chance of winning, she still stood head and shoulders above her peers, in both combat ability and perseverance. As one of her classmates at Beacon once said "Most hunters can at least muster grim determination in the face of would-be certain death, but Mordred? Heh. She'll spit in death's face and call him a bitch before proceeding to completely wreck his shit." Seeing as this view of her was the norm rather than the exception, it would come as horrible shock to any of her former classmates if they saw her now; Speaking listlessly into her scroll, looking as if she was about to break down into tears.

"Still nothing, Professor Port said that Vale probably wasn't even Jaune's destination from the get-go" The eldest child of the Arc family reported tiredly "Looks like the Vale travel route we found on his scroll's search history was fake, like all the rest." She continued bitterness seeping into her tone "Which means he could be anywhere on the entire continent by now, if he's even still-" She choked on the words, tears threatening to spill from her eyes "even still…"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence young lady" A voice interjected, free of anger but bearing no less weight because of it "Your brother is still alive, no doubt about it." she declared, somehow managing to make a largely baseless declaration feel unquestionable "Jaune was apparently a lot stronger than he let on."

Mordred blinked "W-what do you mean mother? Did someone see him recently!?" she all but demanded.

On the other end of the line Lilith sighed slightly "In a manner of speaking yes, but it won't do us any good in regards to locating him." The Arc Matriarch replied, not commenting on her daughter's rather disrespectful tone considering the situation. "Your father and I found evidence of a few fights less than an hour's jog away from the house and I had one of my friends come and check it out." She continued "Her… semblance is a rather… peculiar form of memory based psychometry, something that allowed her to scrape together a rough explanation of what occurred from plants and animals in the surrounding area." The retired huntress sighed "suffice to say your brother proved fully capable of eliminating a couple dozen Grimm, including a Beowolf your sister Azure would've struggled against, without any apparent injury."

"What?" Mordred murmured "But Jaune couldn't- no that doesn't matter, can your friend use her semblance to track him?"

Her mother sighed again "no, seeing as she'd mainly have to rely on the perception of plants to discern where he went, tracking Jaune with it isn't feasible. It's hard enough for her to work with plants in that regard as it is, seeing as they don't see, hear, or even technically remember anything. As a matter of fact, she can only do it with an at least somewhat significant event, like a fight. Trying to track Jaune with it would mean trying to shift through a record of every single animal that just so happened to have passed by in the last 3 months, and considering how many times she'd have to do it to properly track him we wouldn't have gone a mile by the time the year ends."

Mordred deflated "I wish he'd at least taken more than Crocea Mors with him. Did he even have any supplies with him when he left?"

"A small backpack's worth by the looks of it, but he might have stashed more somewhere in the woods, it's not like he could have hidden a stash in the house without someone finding it after all."

"True"

"So when will you be back home?" The Arc Matriarch asked, changing the topic.

Mordred paused "actually, I wasn't intending-" Mordred began before being cut off

"When will you be back home." her mother repeated firmly "You are in no condition to be running off on your own right now young lady, we will find your brother as soon as possible but you aren't going to be helping anyone by running off and getting yourself killed out of reckless stupidity"

"I'm fine Mother!" Mordred shot back.

" **No you are not**." Lilith declared, her voice carrying an immense weight behind it despite her even tone "I know for a fact that you haven't slept in damn near 2 weeks and the transmission from your scroll pegs your remaining aura reserves at barely above fifteen percent, forget about another B-rank hunter, most C-rank hunters could kick your ass with the shape you're in." Lilith paused momentarily "You are going to get on the next bullhead home or so help me I will personally come and drag you back." She demanded before suddenly deflating as she sighed "One of my children is missing and the rest are either inconsolable, blaming themselves in some manner, or simply pushing themselves far past the breaking point. Please Mordred. I know, this is a lot to ask. I know how close you are to Jaune but tearing yourself to pieces isn't going to fix anything. Come home. Get some sleep, god knows you need nearly a week of rest before your aura reserves are back in decent shape. We'll find Jaune, come hell or high water, but I won't allow the rest of my children to destroy themselves in the process."

"I… you're right" Mordred relented "next bullhead is in about an hour, see you soon, love you".

"you too sweetheart, bye for now" her mother replied before ending the call.

For a moment Mordred simply stood aimlessly staring at the sky "idiot" she whispered to someone she knew wasn't there "why the hell did you have to go and run away? No… that doesn't matter, whatever reason you have isn't good enough. So… so I'm going to find you and bring you back, even if I have to break your goddamn legs to stop you from running." Shaking herself back to reality Mordred began making her way towards the nearest pickup point before pausing and glancing back at the sky once more. "idiot…".

* * *

It had been about a month since Jaune had decided to move further away from the relative safety zone around Vale. He had run into surprisingly few Grimm in the last week, although that could be more due to the terrain he was crossing than anything else. Even hunters generally preferred to go around mountains rather than climb them after all. But he wasn't just a hunter. No sir, he was a gamer, and no self-respecting gamer was going to let a goddamn mountain tell them where to go! Even if it would be faster, less of a hassle, and just generally more efficient to go around he was going to climb that damn mountain!

The bullheaded stubbornness of an open-world genre loving gamer aside, Jaune had crossed an impressive distance in the last month, mostly because climbing the mountains in his way had somehow turned out to be faster than going around them, if only due to his Subversive arts skill. Jaune was a tad bit bitter that he had only gotten one additional level from his mountain climbing escapades but he chalked it up to it being part of a combat skill now. Regardless he had ended up shifting his current goal from simply further away from Vale to one of the coastal towns on the eastern edge of the continent and, from there, Mistral.

Of all 4 kingdoms Mistral was the only one where his family had little to no connections. Of course, considering his great grandfather was famous (or infamous depending on who you asked) for singlehandedly crippling Mistral's military (and economy for that matter) during the great War nearly 80 years ago, using the same sword and shield combo Jaune currently had strapped to his hip as it happens. Considering even the worst of hunters typically lived to be at least 120 years old (if they weren't killed before than) before dying of old age it probably couldn't be helped that they had a few issues with his family, although fortunately those issues had degraded from blood boiling hatred to mild distaste over the last 80 years. The fact that his Great grandfather had died of his injuries following the infamous battle helped sate those who would have otherwise held a long-lasting grudge.

The Arcs were flat-out adored in Vale, on top of being favored by the government for the families' alarmingly consistent tendency to give rise to first class hunters and heroes. In Atlas, General Ironwood's well known and long-standing friendship with Jaune's father on top of the latter's role in preventing a hostile takeover of the country (the same event that eventually led to James Ironwood joining the military in the first place) caused most Atlesian's to view them in a positive light, despite being on opposing sides in the great war. As for Vacuo, who had fought alongside Vale during the great war, the Arcs apparently had a reputation of being first class wingmen, whatever that meant, something apparently brought about by his great grandfather's obsession with the dark arte (or so his mother had described it) of shipping, which apparently had nothing to do with actual boats, even if he wasn't too sure of the specifics.

Anyway, the point was that Jaune's family was basically universally liked everywhere but Mistral, which paradoxically meant it was probably the best place for Jaune to start gathering information or at least practice the related skills.

"Well, I always wanted to see all four kingdoms at some point, even if my parents said vacationing to any of them was a big no" Jaune mumbled "Mistral because it was too dangerous, Atlas because it's too cold, and Vacuo because I'm not 18." Jaune recalled his parent's explanations "Well, danger is a positive for me now, I should probably get a cold resistance skill before going to Atlas, and I have no idea why I have to be 18 to go to Vacuo, do they not have children there or something?" Jaune pondered obliviously before shrugging.

Checking his map on more time Jaune grinned "Only another day or two of travel time left until I reach the port. The boat ride straight across should only take a day at most, so it should be easy enough to stow away" Jaune murmured. "Then I just have to make my way to Mistral and start power leveling my subversive arts skill." Jaune paused "I should probably stop at a few villages along the way for a while though, help some people out with Grimm, level up, and maybe even make some Lien off it while I'm at it."

Jaune stopped moving momentarily focusing on the map in his hands as he plotted a course through several villages on the way to Mistral before pausing momentarily "this map is a bit old so it's no wonder it's not on here, but I think I remember hearing something about a pretty big settlement being made near Mistral." Jaune mumbled thoughtfully "now what was its name…"

Jaune wracked his brain for a few moments before his expression brightened. He remembered it now, its name was….

Kuroyuri

* * *

 **Chapter 1: The first step. End.**

 **Quite a bit shorter than my first chapter, but that's simply because this is more of a transition chapter than anything else. The next chapter should be quite a bit longer. One of the reviews on the first chapter asked if other main characters would show up in this, as you might have guess by this chapter's ending the answer to that is a big yes. While I might end up fudging some timelines somewhat, most of the other Canon main characters will be going through roughly the same lives they lived in the Canon-verse until they meet Jaune, at which point I give no promises. While they may show up in various chapters and story arcs they won't end up joining up with Jaune for any extended amount of time.**

 **Another person asked something regarding the heavily question marked trait and if he'd met someone who had significant romantic feelings for him (or something along those lines) and the answer to that is no. Traits are typically just a representation of someone's nature, just because a situation where they are shown hasn't come up doesn't mean they aren't present in a person. For those of you who don't want to spend your time decoding the trait, here it is, the question marks are mostly for Jaune's sake after all.**

 _ **You**_ _ **Dense**_ _ **Motherfucker**_ _ **:**_ _ **She**_ _ **is clearly into**_ _ **you**_ _ **, why don't you**_ _ **notice**_ _ **it you**_ _ **dense**_ _ **idiot? +200% to relationship gains with**_ _ **Girls**_ _ **, -95% chance to notice that**_ _ **she**_ _ **has**_ _ **feelings**_ _ **for**_ _ **you**_ _ **. Charisma stat hidden from the gamer.**_

 **This is basically just for laughs and will probably have little to no actual relevance in the story. That said, it did give me an excuse to put Jaune's Charisma stat in plot limbo, in which it will remain for an undetermined amount of time.**

 **Below is a sort of spoiler: Specifically, Mordred's character sheet. Please keep in mind that she is mostly average as far as B-rank hunters go, save for the fact that she is considerably younger than most other hunters of the same rank. I don't want to show an A-rank characters' stat sheet yet because that's still somewhat in plot limbo.**

 **Sorta spoiler below**

 **Kinda**

 **A bit**

 **Maybe**

 **Though hath be warned!**

* * *

 _ **Name: Mordred Arc**_

 _ **Age: 24 years (19 physically)**_

 _ **Aging rate: 19% standard human rate**_

 _ **Lv: 243**_

 _ **Health: N/A [100%]**_

 _ **Health regen: N/A**_

 _ **Aura: 60357 [100%]**_

 _ **Aura regen: 11.5 points per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)**_

 _ **Vitality: 566 (2190)**_

 _ **Endurance: 659 (2550)**_

 _ **Strength: 657 (2543)**_

 _ **Dexterity: 553 (2140)**_

 _ **Intelligence: 323 (588)**_

 _ **Wisdom: 315 (573)**_

 _ **Stat points: N/A**_

 _ **Luck: 312**_

 _ **Charisma: 102 (502 during combat)**_

* * *

 _ **Traits**_

 **Grand Soul: You possess an exceptionally powerful soul, something that is reflected in your Aura reserves: Quadruples Aura gain per level and doubles Aura gain per point of INT. (200 Aura per level plus 20 additional Aura per point of INT.) Also, increases the ease and effects of Aura training.**

 **Heroic lineage: Your family is extremely old and well respected, having produced nearly a dozen known heroes as well as numerous well known political and historical figures in preceding centuries. Your family line precedes recorded history and is generally believed by most historians to have originated from the high nobility of the ancient -now ruined- kingdom that once existed long before the founding of the 4 kingdoms, nearly a thousand years ago: +1 to all base stats per level, -10% rate of aging.**

 **Spiritual imbalance: The presence of physical and mental energies in your soul is unbalanced and, thus, your Aura has been affected. Negates 60% of Aura bonus towards intelligence and Wisdom attributes. Increase Aura bonus towards Vitality, Strength, dexterity, and Endurance by 40%. Greatly increases growth rate of physical combat skills and of physical attributes. Greatly decreases growth rate of mental Combat skills and mental attributes. Aura heals injuries at a greatly accelerated rate. Aura shield is 50% less effective towards non-physical attacks. Reduces physical aging rate by 30%. considerably slows down growth of Aura mastery skill.**

 **Battle-born: Your nature is heavily inclined towards combat related pursuits something that is evident in your attitude and personality, to the extent that you often come off as abrasive and rude outside of battle. Greatly increased growth rate of combat skills. Charisma decrease by 200 while outside of Combat. Charisma increased by 200 during combat. Greatly decreases growth rate of all noncombat skills. Decreases starting tier of non-combat skills by 1 rank.**

* * *

 **As you can see, when I said I was majorly buffing the general power level of remnant I was not kidding in the slightest. In case you've forgotten Mordred's overall combat prowess is fairly average for a B-rank hunter. Yes. I said that correctly. Average. B-rank, not A-rank.**

 **Of course, while her combat prowess might be average the reason she is that strong is a bit weird. Her spiritual imbalance trait basically makes her absolute shit at things like dust magic and complex aura techniques in exchange for making her an absolute monster in regards to physical combat. Yes, she is monstrously strong but she's also average. Confused yet? Would it make sense if I said that most B-rank hunters have at least a level 60 advanced rank aura mastery skill while Mordred only has a level 41 basic tier aura mastery skill?**

 **If Mordred had the same level of aura mastery as the average B-rank she would already be breaching into A-rank territory. This is basically a general theme I'm going to have for many traits in the story, extreme bonuses in one area with equally extreme negatives in others. Mordred, while incredibly strong in physical combat is relatively weak against semblances with mental affects like illusions and whatnot.**

 **While this isn't particularly important to the story I still want to make it evident that Jaune isn't the only freakish existence on remnant. For one, the Arc family is absolute bullshit with their heroic lineage trait. Without her families' weird biology Mordred would barely be half as strong as she is and other families and groups in remnant have similar weird quirks in their genetics stemming from brutally enforced natural selection ( Via Grimm) on a death world and god (or y'know the author) knows what else. This ranges from stat boosts to extreme talent in specific skills.**

 **While Jaune's biological quirk manifests itself as a bonus upon level up because of his semblance for the rest of his family it is simply easier for them to get stronger, faster, and smarter than it is for other people. Of course, the Arc family biological quirk is quite a bit better than most others, seeing as it has literally no downsides and is active from birth.**

 **Another thing to note is that while Mordred has the same Grand soul trait as Jaune does, she doesn't possess the Incandescent Soul trait, meaning her aura regeneration is a lot slower, slower as in it takes her nearly 4 entire days to go from empty back to 100%. In fact, point for point, Jaune regenerates aura more than 10 times faster than she does despite being barely a fifth of her level.**

 **Regardless of her weaknesses Mordred is still considered the strongest huntress of her generation hands down, and yes, as you've probably guessed, Jaune will be fighting her at some point before this is all over. Not showing her combat skills yet because reasons but suffice to say her great sword mastery is bullshit.**


	3. Chapter 2: A Dance Where None Dare Tread

**Sorry, this ended up a lot shorter than I was initially planning but I found a good ending point so It sort of petered out there. Next Chapter will be at least 8 thousand words without fail.**

* * *

Chapter 2: A dance where none dare tread

A few things became apparent to Jaune as he blurred across the deck, cutting down yet another nevermore as it attempted to kill a group of hapless civilians.

The first was how much of a pain it was to fight flying opponents without a ranged weapon of some type.

The second was how grateful he was that gamer's mind apparently nulled motion sickness, seeing as it was technically a mental thing.

The third was that he really needed to stop jinxing things.

His arrival at the port town had gone quite well, all considered. He'd had no problems getting inside the port town, and had even managed to get his hands on an actual boat ticket (thank god for automated ticket machines) as compared to his original plain of simply stowing away. It had even been easy enough getting on the boat, sticking just close enough to be considered by most to be part of a group rather than an unaccompanied 10-year-old while far enough away not to draw said group's attention to him. Sticking to a rather out of the way portion of the deck and suppressing his presence somewhat Jaune hadn't arisen even the slightest suspicion from the boats crew or other passengers. In fact, it had gone so well that Jaune allowed himself to relax, convinced of the fact that nothing was going to go wrong about this portion of the journey to Mistral.

If the 2 points of luck paired with yet another snarky comment from his semblance wasn't damning enough, then the fact that a mere twenty minutes afterwards the boat had been attack by Grimm was.

Considering they were about 90 miles across the 130-mile-wide channel separating the two continents, Jaune had been caught completely flatfooted by the fact that they were being attacked by a flock of Nevermores of all things. Unfortunately, so had the boat's crew. Nevermores rarely crossed above large expanses of water for multiple reasons including their inability to swim and the fact that even Grimm didn't possess infinite stamina and required time to rest. In fact, Nevermores rarely strayed more than 10 miles from the coast, something that had clearly gone into consideration regarding the boats defenses, if the severely lacking presence of anything remotely classified as anti-air weaponry was anything to go by. While there were a handful of guards on board they were mostly only trained as far as operating the boat's weaponry, something heavily specialized for dealing with aquatic Grimm.

This left Jaune stuck in the position of running around like a maniac trying to fend off several dozen Nevermores while protecting the other passengers as they struggled to get below deck. His only saving grace was the fact that most of the Nevermores were rather young, the largest only reaching a wingspan of a bit less than 2 dozen feet, and were thus generally quite stupid. Rather than collectively hanging back and shooting at the boat with quills from where he couldn't reach them, most of the Nevermores closed in, attempting to peck people's insides out and leaving themselves within Jaune's range. Most, Jaune reminded himself, as he hauled a panicking man more than twice his age out of the way of several razor-sharp quills, not sparing a second to watch them embed themselves easily in the wooden deck as he shot off again.

If he wasn't a runaway with no political sway whatsoever he would be having words with whatever idiot had decided anti-air weaponry were unnecessary on a rather massive passenger boat. 'If I would even have to,' Jaune mused as he dashed up a wall, kicking off and coming down on top of a nevermore as it tried to tear some rich looking guy's head off as he cowered on the ground. Sinking Crocea Mors into the creature's back, he yanked the bird sideways as it died and started to fall, before kicking off it and onto yet another nevermore; choosing his next target even as he prevented the random passenger from being crushed by a dead nevermore, 'seems like some of these people are the type to make huge fuss about something like this after all' Jaune noted, finishing his thought.

Jumping away from a flurry of quills Jaune grimaced slightly as a few impacted painfully on his shoulder. To allow himself to protect the other passengers he had been forced to forgo his shield to keep his other hand available, and while that would be remedied once the remaining passengers had escaped below deck, he still had no method of targeting the Nevermores hanging in the distance taking potshots at him. As the number of Nevermores continued dropping and the remaining civilians evacuated below decks Jaune found a solution to his issue.

The fact that this same solution fell firmly under the category of 'insane' was completely lost on Jaune.

Despite possessing intelligence in no way inferior to most 17-year old's, Jaune was still a 10-year-old (on top of being an Arc, some others would note), and while experience and common sense might have indicated something as being completely crazy, Jaune, somewhat lacking in both, looked only at whether or not it would, in theory, work. As the last of the passengers made it below deck Jaune came to a conclusion only someone who put increasingly small amounts of value on the concepts of common sense and conventional self-preservation would come to. Sheathing his blade, Jaune sprinted up the side of a wall and come down on top of one of the few remaining Nevermores hovering at deck level.

Wrapping his arms around its neck Jaune yanked upwards, forcing the bird to ascend with him on top of it, rising into the sky even as he inadvertently catapulted himself into legend. His legs secured around the large bird with one hand gripping it's feathers Jaune drew Crocea Mors before using all his strength to force the bird sideways leaning and gripping with his legs in order to dodge a barrage of feathers as he neared the remaining nevermore. Inverting himself to the ground Jaune swung his blade downwards towards one the Nevermores as he flew past it, easily tearing through it's wing and leaving it to spiraling downwards to its death.

With his first opponent felled, Jaune felt a surge of confidence and, hefting his blade, soared forth with absolute certainty, using with nothing but instinct and raw brute force to direct his unwilling mount though the sky hundreds of feet above the water even as the remaining Nevermores attempted to murder him. One by one they fell, the question of who would be victorious being answered with every bird he felled, and as the last of the opposing Grimm fell only one question remained to the hero who soared unrivaled in the skies.

"Wait…" the would-be hero murmured with a cold sweat, ignoring the cheers of the passengers now hundreds of feet below him and the repeated complaints of his temporary mount as he did so, "How the fuck do I land this thing?" he asked as his 'partner' continued futilely attempting to murder him "…. Oops"

As the knight and his steed soared majestically towards the horizon, the passengers of the boat engraved the moment into their hearts and the stories they would later spark a legend, of a knight whose true name remained shrouded in mystery. A hero, they would say, whose strength of will bent even the creatures of darkness to his holy task. A fearless knight who stood as a beacon against the dark.

If the passengers of the boat had been close enough to see and hear their hero's words as he passed beyond the horizon, that legend would have been a bit less impressive, if downright hilarious.

"SSHIIITTT! How the hell do I land this thing!" Jaune panicked, his distraction giving the enraged Nevermore the opportunity to try and barrel roll Jaune off it's back as it flew towards land. "the spiiiinninnng! stop the spiiiiiinning! I'm gonna puk-barg" Jaune groaned, the intense flying causing his motion sickness to come back with a vengeance as he vomited mid-barrel roll onto the back of the nevermore, leaving the bird to squawk with indignity "Why the hell is my motion sickness overwhelming Gamer's, urg, mind" Jaune groaned even as he forced the now vomit stained Nevermore to fly straight, lest his motion sickness somehow manage to overpower his semblance yet again.

Looking around, our young hero found his unanswered questions rising to two.

"Wait…. Where'd the boat go?" the vomit-stained would-be hero asked his mount, ignoring its continued attempts to dislodge him.

"Squawk!" the Nevermore shot back unhelpfully.

Jaune blinked "…."

"Squawk! Squawk! Squawk!" the Nevermore continued protesting.

"….."

"Squawk! Squawk! Sqau-" the bird was cut off as Jaune smacked it on the back of the head.

"Shut up! You're not helping!" the vomit-stained hero(?) shot back.

* * *

2 hours, 94 miles, and one rather painful crash-landing later, Jaune found himself firmly on the continent of Mistral proclaiming his eternal love for solid ground (except for that one mountain. Screw that mountain!)

Shaking himself Jaune looked around at the various popups that had appeared with the 'tragic' death of his not-so-noble steed, which coincided with combat officially ending.

* * *

 **37 Nevermores (average level 32) have been slain: 98,050 Experience has been gained:**

 **(530*37) base *5 (trait modifier) = 98,050)**

* * *

 **Congratulations! You are now level 56! You have 20 attribute points to spend!**

* * *

 **Skill Advanced bladed weapon mastery has increase to level 34!**

* * *

 **Skill Defensive arts mastery has increased to level 35!**

* * *

 **Skill Subversive arts has increase to level 45!**

* * *

 **Dexterity has increase by 2!**

* * *

 **Aura mastery is now level 17!**

* * *

 **Aura shield subskill is now level 7!**

* * *

Working his way through the popups he nodded lightly, expending his attribute points idly. As he reached the last popup and began reading it Jaune froze, his eye twitching slightly.

* * *

 **New skill acquired!** **«** **Grimm riding** **»** **skill acquired! For being the first person stupid enough to discover this skill, Grimm riding standard tier skill has ranked up into Unique tier skill** **«** **Legendary Nevermore Knight** **»** **and has received a massive experience bonus! Skill** **«** **Legendary Nevermore Knight** **»** **is now level 46!**

* * *

 **Legendary Nevermore Knight lv 46: (unique level skill): You are the Legendary Nevermore Knight who sits upon his noble (and vomit stained) steed and soars through the heavens, bringing death to all Grimm who dare to challenge your rule of the skies (Or, in the case of your current steed, severe discomfort and shame). Skill allows the effective riding of many species of Grimm but is more effective with flying Grimm. At its current level this skill also provides a 23% decrease to the effects of airsickness while riding air-born Grimm. Current skill level does not encompass proper landings.**

* * *

Jaune simply stood there, unmoving as he continued twitching for close to 10 minutes before a group of around half a dozen Beowolves wandered into the clearing, likely having been drawn from nearby by Jaune's sheer level of aggravation at his smartass of a semblance.

"Level 46 unique tier skill…. and it doesn't encompass landing? Are you fucking kidding me! And what the hell is that description!" he roared before he turned to face the now slightly hesitating pack of Beowolves. "… thanks for coming you all" his tone changed suddenly as he addressed the Beowolves with a warm smile "I really need to work off some steam at this point" he chirped, drawing his sword and promptly bum rushing the now more-than-slightly unnerved Grimm.

* * *

Watching the dissolving corpses of the Beowolves around him, Jaune found himself with mixed feelings. While he had initially approached the fight energetically as an opportunity to work off his aggravation, he soon found himself losing most of his motivation and quickly growing bored. His experience gain after the fight confirmed what he'd already expected.

* * *

 **6 Beowolves (average level 24) have been slain, 1,560 Experience has been gained:**

 **(520*6) base *.5 (trait malus) = 1,560)**

* * *

On one hand, there was the fact that he'd grown strong enough that fighting 6 Beowolves (all stronger than the one he'd nearly died against the night he ran away) at the same time was no longer enough to count as a threat to him, even a direct hit failing to so much as pierce his aura shield. On the other, it was further proof of the fact that the Grimm more prominent in populated areas would not be nearly enough for him to reach the level of strength he needed to attain. It was standard procedure to ensure that the Grimm in or near populated areas were limited to those at or below D-rank.

It simply wasn't possible for the kingdom's hunters to wipe out every single Grimm in an area (especially considering they would soon repopulate) meaning the allocation of hunters was prioritized towards coping with Grimm C-rank and above or otherwise of higher grade species. While it wasn't a problem for Jaune quite yet, seeing as most Beowolves fell within the E-rank category, it had become apparent that even sticking on the relative outskirts of civilization was not going to be enough, even if it was the best option at this point. Although the solution might seem simple enough it wasn't nearly as easy as becoming as strong as was efficient near the kingdoms before moving on to slightly more dangerous areas. This is largely because there are no slightly more dangerous areas.

As the son of 2 high ranking hunters with 7 sisters all following in the same career path Jaune knew a lot of things that most authorities tried (with great success, as it happens) to keep on the downlow from civilians. Namely the fact that the ranking system for Grimm was deliberately designed to paint an inaccurate image to civilians, although this was largely for their own good. A battle between a hunter and a Grimm of the same rank rarely results in an equal fight, despite what most people are led to believe. For example, while Jaune pegged his combat strength at around peak E-rank he was fully capable of fighting dozens of Nevermores and Beowolves. While the combat strength of a Grimm increases as it ages, Beowolves and Nevermores around the age of the ones he fought would be considered middling E-rank. In all honesty Jaune was probably capable of fighting 2 or 3 lower level D-rank Grimm at this point, despite being E-rank.

This wasn't due to him being weird or different, it was a deliberate feature of the ranking system included to make humanities' protectors seem stronger. Most people at E-rank could manage dozens of E-rank Grimm just as most D-rank aura users could handle around 2 dozen D-rank Grimm. Jaune's father had explained to him that this was to promote the belief that this type of comparison extended beyond weaker Grimm all the way up to A-rank level Grimm, making people believe an A-rank hunter could match half a dozen A-rank Grimm without anyone in authority ever saying it directly. Looking back, it wasn't all that surprising that such a round-about method was used because that comparison wasn't true at all. Seeing as misinforming huntsmen would only lead to more deaths and trying to keep 2 separate classifications (one told to civilians and another to hunters) would only lead to outrage (which would only attract Grimm) when people realized their government was lying to them, regardless of the intention behind it, the remaining 3 officially recognized rankings for Grimm more accurately represented their strength.

A C-rank hunter could, at best, match 2 or 3 C-rank Grimm, while at B-rank it was pretty much even 1v1. Seeing as the concept of an S-rank Grimm wasn't recognized (as it would damage the idea that humanities' greatest protectors were all but invincible) A-rank basically encompassed anything too strong to be considered B-rank. This of course meant that many A-rank Grimm were fully capable of fighting evenly with an entire team of A-rank hunters, despite what the general public was led to believe.

This meant general practice for Grimm C-rank and above was to use hunters one rank above them, if possible: B-rank hunters for C-rank Grimm, A-rank Hunter's for B-rank Grimm, and either large numbers of A-ranks or an S-rank (if possible) for A-rank Grimm.

To keep up the illusion that Grimm were typically weaker than their equivalent, Kingdoms worked extremely hard to keep stronger Grimm outside their borders. This had the unfortunate side effect of Grimm presence and power sharply rising once beyond the operation range of the kingdoms. Sharply as in from mostly E and D ranks with the occasional C-rank to mostly C-ranks with some B-ranks nearly as soon as you left the outskirts of the kingdom into the true wilderness.

Although it wasn't something he could afford to agonize over in the present, it was nonetheless a worrying thought that he might become too strong for the area within the kingdom's borders before he became strong enough for the wildlands. While he could conceivably grow stronger through other methods (such as physical training) it would take time he didn't have, and risking it in the wilds far before he was ready would likely mean meeting an opponent that he would simply not stand a chance against.

His now inevitable stint into the wildlands shifted yet another problem from being a possible issue to being an avoidable one. Unsurprisingly, gathering information about a shadow organization was made even more impossible without people to connect it too. Entering the wilderness would undoubtedly mean a complete stop on any progress into tracking down Rook or whoever was behind the attack on Vale. This was yet another reason heading to mistral seemed like the best course of action, seeing as it would let him gather information and grow stronger simultaneously, before the two actions became mutually exclusive.

While Jaune supposed fighting and stealing from criminals in societies' underworld might be able to help tick off both goals later, he was certain there wasn't anything large scale and well connected enough to provide him with a constant source of experience and information.

"After all" Jaune mumbled to himself, removing himself from his thoughts and preparing to start traveling once more, "it's not like there are any super large scale organizations turned militant terrorist group with eyes and ears almost everywhere with a significant enough number of sympathizers I'd be hard to suppress is going to crop up in the next few years or anything."

* * *

 **For managing to foreshadow a future development so blatantly despite having no knowledge of it whatsoever your skill Oracle has increased to level 8!**

* * *

 **You have gained 5 Luck!**

* * *

Jaune blinked before closing the popups slowly with a blank expression on his face "Nope. Not dealing with that, just going to forget that ever happened. I have too much on my plate right now as it is without worrying about my semblance screwing with me." Jaune mumbled, attempting to convince himself that he, in fact, had an actual choice in the matter.

Unsurprisingly, he failed.

* * *

His little adventure with his short lived (he had made sure of it) partner had unfortunately left him with very little idea in regards to his exact location, even if he was confident he had made it to the Mistralean continent. While the Grimm presence suggested he was in or at least near a populated area Jaune now had no reference point with which to orient himself towards the nearest town. Fortunately, it wasn't that hard to use the location of the Sun to plot a way back towards the coast, after which he would be able to follow the coastline towards the town that had been his initial destination before he'd been forcibly sidetracked.

While the primary reason for this move was indeed to reorient himself he also had to make sure that no one had gotten a clear view of his face on the boat. If worst came to worst he might even have to delay his trip to Mistral for a while, if a widespread story of some random blonde kid matching his description fighting a horde of Nevermores reached home his family would turn Mistral from a relative safe-haven to a prime hunting ground during Jaune-hunting season. He really needed to pick up a disguise of some sort, or at least dye his hair black or something, before going into more populated areas.

Had Jaune known what he would find in that portside city, he would have fled to the ends of the planet without a second thought. For while his identity remained shrouded in mystery, something far worse than his family would follow him from that city, something he could neither fight nor ever truly escape from. For while the name Jaune Arc had little meaning to the residents of the city, it would become the birthplace of the 3 things: A legend, a secret, and a never-ending source of embarrassment for Jaune Arc.

* * *

-1 week later-

"…and so with a final mighty blow, the last of the Ancient Nevermores fell with a screech, leaving the mighty hero and his steed to rule the skies. Without pause, not waiting for praise or reward, The Nevermore Knight soared off into the sunset, unto the next battlefield. So ends the beginning of the Legend of the Legendary Nevermore knight, from where it may go from here, we shall just have to wait and see." The story teller finished reverently as a crowd of children (and adults) around him cheered and a single boy standing in the distance listening in was left with a single thought.

'What the actual fuck.' Jaune Arc wondered, dumbstruck, as he left the pavilion in a distinctly shell-shocked manner.

In the week it had taken for him to find his way to the portside town his ship had been bound for, the world seemed to have been turned on its head. While it was fortunate that the best shot of him was a grainy imaged taken from 2 hundred feet below as he fought the last of the Nevermores he was still stunned at how quickly the story had changed from reality. Sure he had expected some level of rumors regarding a him fighting off the Nevermores but he still was uncertain how a skirmish with a couple dozen young E-rank Nevermores had turned into a nigh legendary battle against nearly a hundred ancient Nevermores (High C almost low B-rank Grimm). He also wasn't sure how his(?) description had apparently been settled as a 6-foot-tall tanned heavily muscled man with luscious blonde hair and cerulean eyes.

For all his questions, there was 1 thing Jaune Arc was sure of…

"I am the Legendary Nevermore Knight" a 7 or so year old boy yelled from his place on top of a roof "Ruler of the skies" he declared holding a wood sword out with his declaration.

"Ha fool" another boy yelled from a taller rooftop "I am the true Legendary Nevermore Knight!"

"Get your commemorative Legendary Nevermore Knight souvenirs! Buy 1 get 1 free!" A merchant yelled loudly.

"This is so freaking embarrassing." Jaune arc moaned as he pulled up his hood and covered his red face with his hands, shame flooding through him.

* * *

 **Chapter 2: A dance where none dare tread: end**

 **Starting from now this story will become known as the** **«** **Legend of the Legendary Nevermore Knight** **»** **! (it's a lie). I think I have a slight affinity towards giving my main characters a tendency to suffer from inadvertent Chuunibyou. A more lighthearted part of this story will be Jaune's steadfast efforts to prevent himself from being connected with the Legendary Nevermore Knight all while suffering in agonizing embarrassment as his unwanted (and humiliating) alter ego somehow becomes popular enough that it manages to spawn multiple book series, television shows, video games and even action figures. It's truly a cruel fate that by the time Jaune actually returns home, his twin sister will have become an avid fan of everything related to The legendary Nevermore Knight (unaware of his true identity) and rather than a healing experience of finally being home again Jaune will only find agony and never ending shame as his dark history is inadvertently thrown in his face again and again.**

 **Basically, Jaune now has a completely Chuuni alternate identity, because humor is one of the two Genres in this story for a reason.**

 **Onto more serious notes now.**

 **There are a couple of things I forgot to mention previously regarding skill masteries and tier levels. Reaching higher tiers has varying levels of challenge for different people, depending on innate talent. For example, Jaune has an extremely high level of talent in regards to aura mastery requiring only aura reserves of at least 3000 and a level 20 basic skill to rank up to the advanced tier, as opposed to Mordred who has rather low talent with aura mastery: still stuck at the basic tier despite having aura reserves greater than 60,000 and a level 41 basic aura mastery skill.**

 **A more accurate representation of skill tiers and mastery levels might be to compare the two to talent and experience respectively. The tier of a skill roughly represents talent while mastery level is simply how much experience someone has with something. While someone without talent in something could become very proficient in it with enough time (represented by a high level) genius's often reach levels nearly unattainable for other people. It's like comparing a normal but experienced mathematician to someone like Einstein: the mathematician is no doubt very good at what they do but in the end, they simply aren't at the same level as Einstein was (scaling for their relative time periods). A genius at something will naturally advance the tier ranking of their skills while those with less talent would struggle to do the same.**

 **The blatant foreshadowing thing was referring towards the White Fang's shift into a violent organization, which I don't consider to be much of a spoiler considering it would be strange if Jaune didn't end up running into them while tearing through the criminal underworld for clues, although that's still several years (and presumably at least a dozen chapters) in the future, although I don't intend to leave the White Fang as a product containing 99% real mook juice. Seriously, how is it that that the White Fang accomplished anything when 99% of its members could probably have been mowed down by the dozens by someone like Cardin 'Scrub lord' Winchester? Hell, Canon Jaune is probably stronger than the average white fang member the moment he had his aura unlocked, with literally 0 training.**

 **Also, for some reason, I am quite fond of the title: Cardin 'Scrub lord' Winchester, even if I don't particularly hate his character after he gets his head out of his ass post jaundice, something that is admittedly mostly head canon but whatever.**

 **As for Jaune's now level 8 Oracle skill, what is now an 8% chance to receive an Oracle of a future tragedy essentially means that if something significant enough for someone to have an Oracle about it occurs in the future, Jaune has an 8% of receiving it. Of course, this means an 8% chance prior to it occurring, spread out from present day to just before the incident happens, hence why Jaune doesn't get an infinite spam of Oracles from events over the course of the next several thousand years. Rather than having a flat one time 8% chance once, it's more like a .01% (depending on the time scale) chance every day until the event occurs. Seeing as Oracle worthy events don't exactly occur daily (or more than once a decade at most, usually) leveling up this skill mostly serves a different purpose for later in the story, it's not going to bail Jaune out if he is about make a bad choice in attempting to stop Vale's destruction.**

 **Someone mentioned that they thought it would be cool if oracles imparted some skills from those sending back the Oracle to Jaune, seeing as it's basically a collection of their thoughts and knowledge, but for a conventional Oracle that just won't work. It's a mess of hundreds of thousands of people's thoughts and experiences and for every one that is a master swordsman there is a hundred others that don't know the first thing about swordsmanship. That means for every correct aspect of a technique imparted Jaune would also be imparted with 100 incorrect or at least inferior aspects, and unless he could differentiate the two (implying he already knew the correct method in the first place) it would only hinder his progress if anything more than a bare outline of those memories remained.**

 **Some of you might be wondering why the first Beowolf Jaune fought was indirectly mentioned to have the ability to pierce through his then 250-damage threshold aura shield and then severely reduced or outright deplete his 1000-point health bar but now Beowolves of a higher level can't even break past his 350-damage threshold aura shield. The reason behind this is that Jaune has an invisible defense stat calculated from his other attributes, with Vitality and Endurance raising defense against health damage and Intelligence and Wisdom raising defense regarding aura shield damage. A high aura shield level only means someone is capable of easily projecting a large portion of aura into their shield, not that that aura is used efficiently.**

 **Jaune's high intelligence and wisdom attributes are his saving grace in regards to taking hits, seeing as his aura shield level is very low, even by signal student standards. This is because aura shield is counted as a combat skill, meaning he can only raise it by taking hits against opponents that are genuinely dangerous to him. On the other hand, Aura mastery is not considered a combat skill despite how much of a benefit it is in combat. Aura mastery is literally a person's connection and awareness of their spiritual-self being more akin to the process of attaining enlightenment than something solely for the sake of combat.**

 **Final note for now, regarding the slowdown of aging, it isn't as easy to attain eternal youth as it might appear, considering the aging rate hits a pretty potent soft cap at 15% normal human rate so there isn't an abundance of random immortals running around remnant.**


	4. Chapter 3: A Hero's Burden

**Chapter 3: A Hero's Burden**

* * *

No matter how peaceful the forests of remnant seem at first glance, they -with precious few exceptions- bare more thorns than even the most radiant of roses.

 **«Ursa Major Lv57»**

The thorn in question stood at roughly twice the height of a fully-grown man, covered in bone-like armor with vicious spikes paired blood red eyes that overflowed with hatred. It was a true testament to the beast's stature that it remained an imposing figure, despite the numerous injuries crisscrossing its entire body, and its lifeblood dripping steadily onto the ground. It's eyes darting around, the Grimm struggled to find it's illusive opponent in vain, for the next time it's foe made his presence known was in the form of yet another burning cut across it's back as a blade tore through the Grimm's armor with unnatural ease, pushing the beast ever closer towards oblivion. Spinning around to counter, the Grimm finds nothing but wind whispering death softly, slipping through the trees within the empty forest, both allies of its unseen adversary.

Roaring, the Ursa Major spun around rapidly, searching its surroundings desperately, unaware or uncaring that the action only caused its blood to depart its body more quickly, staining the fallen leaves black as it's tainted blood pooled beneath its feet. It's desperately heightened awareness proves worthless as yet another burning pain shoots through its body, pushing deeper into it's flesh until, suddenly, a limit is reached and with a stilted roar the beast's eyes grow dull and empty. The beast crumples to the floor, it's prodigious strength and endurance proving worthless against a foe it couldn't find let alone hit.

With its death, a change occurs within the clearing, the black blood scattered across it shifting, losing form and beginning dissipating into black smoke that fades into the wind, even as the body of the massive Grimm slowly started to crumble into formless darkness. As this unfolds a child barely ten years old watches from the center of the clearing, a few dozen feet away from the slain beast. To most, it would seem as though that child had appeared from nowhere without a sign, existing without seeming to have ever appeared, for all that he hadn't been present just moments earlier.

Tapping his fingers idly on the hilt of the sword sheathed at his hip, the boy bobs his head, affirming something to himself even as he watches the decaying Grimm in easy satisfaction. The boy's relaxed breathing and easy disposition stood completely contradictory with the fact that he had just spent the last 15 minutes steadily edging a D-rank Grimm to and over death's border, without his opponent so much as laying eyes on him even a single time.

"I can't believe you!" a distant distinctly feminine voice echoed across the forest from behind the boy "sending a child that young to fight something like that!? What the hell is wrong with you!"

"It's not like we have much of choice! CCT coverage here is down and it's not like the big shots up in mistral care all that much about some backwards village with no redeeming qualities! We can't contact hunters without CCT coverage and that thing isn't going to wait however many weeks it takes for those holier than thou city folks to fix the reception out here! The kid has unlocked aura and a decent weapon, he's got a better chance at killing that thing than we do!" A man's voice retorted "We shouldn't even be out here with that thing around"

"And we wouldn't be, if you hadn't seen fit to hire a little boy to kill a Grimm the size of a house!" the first voice continued, louder and closer than before, as its owner unwittingly approached the clearing. "You better hope he isn't dead or so help me I'm reporting you to the next huntsman I-"

"You shouldn't be shouting in the forests like that" the boy interjected, glancing backwards as the owners of the two voices entered the clearing "if there were any Grimm left around it would draw them to you like flies"

The owner of the first voice, a somewhat fierce looking woman in her late 20's turned to focus on him quickly, relief flooding her expression "Thank god" she breathed out "listen kid, I don't care what this idiot told you but you can't beat that thing. Come back to the village with us and-"

The boy snorted lightly, cutting the woman off before returning his gaze to the partially dissipated Grimm just outside of the woman's direct line of sight, causing the clearing's other two occupants to follow his gaze unwittingly.

The woman let out a short shriek, freezing in terror momentarily at the sight of the immense Grimm before her, nearly fleeing the clearing before noticing with a start "it's… dead?" her fear drained away as she peered more closely at the Grimm, her eyes tracing the numerous injuries across the monster's decaying body with a dumbstruck expression.

"Yup" the boy replied turning away from the Grimm and towards the clearing's third occupant, a partially bald man in his late 30's who just so happened to be boy's employer for this little outing "a deal is a deal, I fixed your Ursa problem so I hope you don't mind hurrying it up with your end of the bargain. I don't mean to be a jerk about this but I have to get going as quickly as possible."

"n-no way" The man murmured in shock "you actually killed it? I don't believe it."

The boy sighed before snapping his fingers, momentarily drawing the two adults' attention as he did so. "watch" he deadpanned pointing to a tree on the other end of the clearing for a second before moving. Blurring across the clearing Jaune swung Crocea Mors a single time, his blade slicing cleanly though a tree trunk at least 6 inches in diameter, leaving the top part of the tree to hit the ground with a crash. A bored expression on his face the boy looked back towards the two adults and raised an eyebrow.

To a hunter such a feat would be impressive for his age, to a civilian it was downright incomprehensible and it left his small audience staring at him with dumb expressions on their faces.

A moment passed before the boy prompted "So" he paused momentarily "my reward?"

The older man blinked once before nodded several times rapidly "r-right away!" he replied making to return to the village before the boy stop him again.

"Don't you want to take a photo of it? You know, to prove it's actually dead to the other villagers? It's not like you need CCT coverage for photos."

"R-right" the man fumbled, following the boy's advice after a moment.

Moments later, the boy let a light grin cross his face 'just another day in the life of deadliest 10-year-old on remnant' Jaune Arc joked to himself in idle amusement as he followed the still shelled-shocked adults back to their village.

* * *

Having loaded up his pack with supplies Jaune gave a light wave to the villagers before setting off once more. A few miles later, after transferring his supplies into his inventory space without fear of drawing attention to it, Jaune allowed his thoughts to return to his fight with the Ursa Major. While the fight had given some pretty good experience and even another level in Subversive arts, the biggest pay-off had been information.

It was common knowledge that Grimm were drawn by negative emotions but few knew the sensitivity of a Grimm towards this varied drastically. All species of Grimm would be able to detect a large spike in negativity from a large population, but on a smaller individualized scale sensitivity varies greatly. Grimm species tend to align with traits possessed by their animal counterparts to some extent, including their sensory capabilities. Beowolves, like regular wolves, have very keen eyesight and hearing which they tend to rely on over their ability to sense negative emotions. Ursa, like regular bears, only have eyesight about as good as the average non-aura using human and while they have strong hearing they don't always have a reliable way of knowing if a sound is from a human or something else. Studies have concluded that, because of this, Ursas have one of the highest ability in regards to negative emotion sensing out of all other lower and mid-level breeds of Grimm, seeing as they use and develop this trait more consistently than other types of Grimm.

It was to the extent that Ursa could use the most minor of negative emotions to keep track of humans close to them. It was to the extent that it was considered nearly impossible to effectively hide from an Ursa within a hundred feet of it. Nearly impossible for anyone without extreme emotional control, or a fairly cheatsy ability that let them null anything short of a major panic attack instantly if they felt like it. Last one ring any bells? While Jaune hadn't been certain prior to now, since he'd attracted Grimm via his emotions the night he'd ran away, he could now confidently say that nothing short of major emotional breakdown would slip passed his Gamer's mind skill and attract the attention of Grimm.

This was particularly important seeing as his Subversive arts skill had no influence on this aspect of stealth and he didn't want to get detected by a Grimm stronger than he could fight because he was going through a spot of depression, for some reason or another.

Forcibility pushing the memory of the events that had unfolded in a certain portside town into a dark cold corner of his mind once more, Jaune glanced down at his newly acquired scroll to ensure he was on the correct route. While the CCT reception had apparently been faulty in this area for the last few weeks, hunter grade scrolls didn't need connection to the dust net for the built-in GPS to function properly. Seeing as hunters sometimes went beyond the range of the CCTs and hunter's scrolls could be powered solely by Aura, the scrolls were eventually fitted with a function allowing the scroll to detect the user's movement real time, meaning that it could indicate its owner's location based on their movement in regards to the last registered spot without requiring continuous exterior input.

Jaune had pointedly not questioned in regards to where, exactly, his short-term employer had acquired a recently released hunter grade scroll, just as his employer had refrained from asking how a 10-year-old knew how to effectively hack and reprogram said scroll to ensure it couldn't be tracked or connected to him. Discovering the fact that Subversive arts apparently applied to hacking had been a very pleasant surprise, although it was strange knowing how to do something he'd never even attempted before. While Jaune felt a bit guilty about carrying a scroll registered to someone who didn't exist under a service plan that had never actually been paid for (now didn't that just scream illegal) Jaune knew he couldn't expect to save Vale without ever getting his hands dirty, and that a little thing like this would probably seem inconsequential to what he'd likely end up doing once he began interacting with the criminal underworld.

While Jaune refused to harm innocent people in any significant way, he simply could not afford to give criminals the same leeway, especially when it might mean the difference between Vale being destroyed or not. That meant stealing from, attacking, blackmailing, torturing and even killing those on the wrong side of the law if he had too. Whether Jaune currently held enough resolve to carry out the aforementioned acts (regardless of the reasons behind them) wasn't clear, something that Jaune himself recognized. It was one thing to think of a course of action and entirely different one to carry it out.

With a subversive arts skill nearing level 50, Jaune was confident in his ability to get away with less than legal actions, just so long as kept his targets to criminals and stayed away from influential individuals. Part of his confidence stemmed from the kingdoms rather harsh treatment of criminals and lowlifes, most of the time the death of a thug or thief wouldn't even be investigated properly before it was simply deemed a case of gang violence or simply an unsolvable crime. The fact that, according to Jaune's father, there was an unspoken agreement to effectively ignore the actions of hunters and hunters-in-training in regards to criminals was another factor. If a huntsman unnecessarily killed a dozen criminals through excessive force, then so what? A huntsman was more valuable than any number of criminals, and it simply wouldn't do to damage public opinion of hunters by convicting them as murderers. A pretty brutal thing to tell a 7-year-old, in retrospect, but Jaune's father didn't want his children running around with rose tinted goggles in a profession out to kill them.

Basically, if Jaune killed some random low-life then just so long as he didn't leave blatant evidence as to the culprit then it would be quickly written off as a huntsman thing and then promptly whatever'd by the local law enforcement. It was a harsh reality, but Remnant wasn't a nice enough place to allow much mercy to those on the wrong side of the law.

Of course, Jaune didn't plan on killing people willy-nilly, if he could avoid killing someone then he would, even if they were a criminal.

"Keh" Jaune scoffed as he slipped through the treetops "What has the world come to?" he asked himself tiredly "me, that Jaune Arc, who just months ago was considered the least talented Arc in generations, who couldn't hurt a fly, am seriously contemplating the pros and cons of murder for future use." A few hollow laughs escape him before he falls silent.

Any semblance of a good mood having been wiped aside by his rather dark train of thought, Jaune continued tirelessly towards his next destination, the reminder of just what it would take, just what it would cost him, to save everything he held dear casting a shadow on his heart.

"What has the world come to?" Jaune whispered once more, wishing for an answer he knew wouldn't come. A solution that no one else could give him.

Amidst the silence, another question floated to the forefront of his mind.

' _Even if I survive to see the end of this, will I still be me? Will I still be Jaune Arc, youngest child of a family of 10 with social skills worse than the average Schnee? Or… on the path I am taking, in learning of my enemy in order to destroy it… Will I end up becoming it? In searching and scouring through the darkness of humanity, will I eventually drown in it?'_

Regardless of how much time passed, Jaune found no answer.

"It doesn't really even matter, does it?" Jaune asked himself "Even if, in facing it, the Jaune Arc of today ceases to exist, the only thing I'll find in running away and trying to save myself is a fate worse than death."

 _In that lonely forest, unwatched and unseen, such a tragedy took place. A boy barely 10 years old, who mere months ago was almost entirely innocent, acknowledging his willingness to taint and stain himself down to his very soul, if he could only save the people he loved. A boy whose childhood ended that day, or perhaps even before then, at the very moment he had set himself on this path. A boy who, in that instant, realized that he'd rather become an unstoppable monster…_

 _...than a hero that failed._

* * *

-1 month later-

Kuroyuri was a rather large settlement situated alongside a mountain around 2 weeks away from Mistral by foot (for civilians at least). While it was less than an hour's trip by air to Mistral, the mountain range was considered far too steep to traverse (challenge accepted) something that forced travelers to take an extremely roundabout route, greatly extending non-aerial travel time.

Jaune's first impression (after slipping unnoticed into the town) was that whoever designed the place had done a very good job. From what he recognized as Sakura trees scattered throughout the town to the rectangular miniature ponds with scattered flowers floating on the surface to the welcoming architecture of the settlement's buildings Kuroyuri was simply a very comfortable place, even for someone visiting for the first time.

His second impression was that it was a very good spot for a settlement, considering it was surrounded by some level of mountainous and generally obstructive terrain on 3 sides. The fact that many of the Grimm that would normally have been attracted to the settlement would instead be at least partially drawn towards the more established and more populous city of Mistral only added to the location's defensibility. With the support of one of 4 kingdoms Kuroyuri would be a firmly established settlement by the end of the decade. Yes, with the support of one of the 4 kingdoms, an asterisk that led into Jaune's 3rd impression of the fully independent settlement.

Kuroyuri probably wouldn't last a decade.

Judging by his (admittedly limited) aura sensing ability there was maybe a bit more than 5 dozen aura users, most of which had aura reserves less than a fifth of his own, present in the settlement. Only a single person had aura reserves exceeding Jaune's and even then, their aura seemed stilted in a way, like it wasn't flowing properly somehow.

Jaune had made enough progress since his arrival on the Mistralean continent that he (sitting easy at level 62) had exceeded E-rank combat prowess and managed to reach lowest percentile of D-rank combat strength. That meant he, generously, had the combat ability of a rookie huntsmen who had just graduated well below average from a hunter school of equally lacking performance. In other words, he was probably a bit stronger than his older sister Jane, who should be a first year at Beacon by this point.

He could confidently say that almost every single individual guarding Kuroyuri was much weaker than he was, apart from the person with the weird feeling aura, who Jaune remained uncertain about.

Thinking about it for a moment, it wasn't all that surprising. The people who had founded Kuroyuri had done so to escape the current culture and societal pressures present in Mistral. They were the ones who were discriminated against and generally treated like garbage in some way or another, or had otherwise simply made enemies with the wrong people. Unpopular groups rarely got the chance to become hunters in Mistral, considering how heavily traditionalist it was, and those first-generation hunters not from majority groups that did somehow manage were typically given the short straw at every possible instance, the most dangerous missions with the lowest pay, bottom of the list priority with the establish hunter level blacksmiths and suppliers, you name it the list goes on. With a finishing blow in the form of severe restrictions regarding civilians having unlocked aura and most unpopular groups found themselves almost wholly unable to amass any form of power.

Inversely, strong hunters with known backgrounds were treated like celebrities, a result of the Mistralean government's various programs to restore hunter numbers after a specific member of a certain famous Valean family (awkward shuffle) dropped the number of Mistralean hunters to an all-time low.

The final result was that those who desired to leave didn't possess the strength to do so, and those with the strength to leave didn't possess the desire to do so.

Kuroyuri was a risk. A desperate gamble on a brighter future, but was it really worth it? Most villages were small enough to remain largely unnoticed and could survive with only E-rank combatants but Kuroyuri, while much smaller than the capitals of the 4 kingdoms, was much too large to escape notice. Sooner or later, the Grimm would come.

Jaune lightly crossed over a short wooden bridge over one of the small ponds finding himself drawn from his brooding by the bright voice of a child.

"I found a flower on the water!" a boy around 10 years old exclaimed, giving an answer to a question Jaune had missed as the boy smiled at a woman that appeared to be his mother.

"oh, I see" the woman replied with a gentle smile.

Running up to his mother the child pleaded "Can we take it home and plant it in the garden?"

The woman leaned down with a slightly sad expression "no sweetheart, that flower lives here"

"aww"

As the boy deflated his mother smiled and ruffled his hair "but I'll tell you what you can do" she began "take this lien and go find something nice for your father's return, he's been hunting for quite some time. I bet the journeys been very tiring, don't you?" the woman asked

"yes"

"do you think you'll know what he wants?" the woman asked with a small smile.

A mischievous expression crossed the boy's face for a moment "I think he wants a water flower in the garden" the boy replied cheekily.

As the boy's mother laughed lightly and moved to admonish the boy, Jaune fled the scene quickly. His heart aching Jaune found a secluded alleyway and leaned up against a wall, pushing tears back as he took a shuddering breath. The interaction between the child and his mother had been another bitter reminder of what he had lost, of what he had given up and could never truly get back. Sure, Jaune might eventually be able to return to his family but by then it simply wouldn't be the same. Even in the best-case scenario, the years he had spent on his own, the trials he would face, and the battles he would have to endure would change him.

Jaune straightened up and, willing his gamer's mind to wrangle his jumbled emotions into order, found a small knot of emotions within him that surprised him slightly. Jealousy. Anger. Hatred. Smoldering like something foul within his very being, resisting for a moment before being quelled by his skill. Wiping his eyes Jaune let out a bitter snort, tinged with a hint of self-disgust.

Jealously. For he knew he had already been chastised and scolded gently by his own Mother for the last time. His childhood was over.

Anger. At the world for forcing the burden he bore onto him, for cutting his childhood short so cruelly and without care. He was alone.

Hatred. To the people of this town who so carelessly brought things of true value into danger for something so worthless as wealth, status, or power by choice. A choice he never had.

It was odd for Jaune, feeling hatred, true hatred, however small it may be in magnitude. He honestly wasn't sure if he had ever truly hated something or someone before now. Dislike, annoyance towards, aversion, they were all things he'd felt before but hatred? It was new. Yet another display of how greatly less than 6 months away from home had tainted him. Hatred, he realized, was a horrible feeling, like something foul smelling and disgusting tinting his senses and thoughts. Yet for all he disliked it, the feeling remained, present the moment he stopped suppressing it with gamer's mind.

To a child that had given up the comfort of family, who had willingly deprived himself of something he valued so greatly merely so it might persist, even without him, what the people of Kuroyuri were doing infuriated him. For all that they may have been oppressed in Mistral, all the opportunities they couldn't reach and the things they could never have, they – for the most part- still had their families. To a child who had quickly come to view material wealth and power as naught but a means to an end, people putting those they cared about at risk for a gamble where the only return was power, in whatever form, was untenable.

For Jaune Arc, who would rather live his life in the lowest of poverty and amongst the worst of oppression just so long as the people he cared about still lived than lose one and live his life in the lap of luxury people, risking their own supposed loved ones for such a worthless reward inspired true hatred in his heart for the first time.

Returning his thoughts to order and finally quelling his dark emotions Jaune left the alley, unaware of what had truly transpired there. Unaware of the infinitesimal taint that had now stained his heart, a black stain, small to the point of being unnoticeable, the first warning of what Jaune would become. The first step, so long in the making, of the path Jaune Arc had unknowingly become trapped upon.

The path and the curse of one, who, for all his triumphs in the eyes of the masses, remained at his core a tragic hero. Whose happily ever after would remain marred with the scars of the past for far too long.

* * *

In a comfortable room within one Kuroyuri's many inns Jaune Arc sat cross legged upon the wooden floor, his eyes closed and his breathing even. For most it would seem like simple meditation of some sort, to a hunter with any level of aura sensing ability on the other hand, it would look like a child playing around with the equivalent of a few hundred pounds of dynamite, even if there wasn't any actual risk of an explosion. To Jaune Arc, it was simply training. Feeling and manipulating his vast stores of aura, more befitting of a hunter more than 3 times his level than a 10-year-old, Jaune struggled to learn how to move it like another limb to more effectively turn it upon his enemies.

Aura mastery, for all that it irreplaceable in battle, was one of the few abilities Jaune possessed that fell under the category of being a non-combat skill. While Jaune couldn't say for certain, he felt the reason behind this was because degrading Aura mastery to the level of a mere combat skill wasn't fair or accurate. It would be like saying the ability to walk is a skill learned solely for combat, sure not being capable of walking would typically be a death sentence in a battle, but no one is going to consider a toddler learning how to walk combat training.

While Jaune would indeed make faster progress by using his aura during battle, it was the most important skill he could practice outside of battle at anything resembling a decent rate. The fact that he had recently reached level 19 aura mastery and was a singular level away from ranking the skill up only added to the significance of aura training. Ranking up the skill to the advance tier would make all his attribute's affective values shoot up by a massive 25%, pushing him from bottom of the barrel D-rank to slightly below the middle of pack for his rank. While it would also simply increase his ability to control his aura his complete lack of active aura expending skills made this all but pointless at the moment.

While a higher mastery level would also slow down his aging once he was 18, this held no real significance to Jaune, seeing as his current predicament would be over (one way or another) long before he was 18 years old.

Returning to the topic of active skills momentarily, Jaune had resigned himself to acquiring some (one way or another) once he arrived in Mistral. While he had attempted to learn how to use aura channeling (otherwise referred to as aura infusion) by pouring his aura into Crocea Mors, his attempts had so far been unsuccessful. Even though Crocea Mors apparently had S rank aura channeling efficiency, all his attempts, both during and outside of combat, had proved fruitless. While it had been easy enough to pour aura into the weapon (to the extent that his aura almost felt like it was being drawn into the blade by itself) the aura didn't result in any of the proper effects of aura channeling. Instead of the blade growing sharper and sturdier (the latter of which being admittedly pointless for an indestructible weapon) the aura just seemed to flow off to… somewhere, vanishing without a trace the moment it entered either half of Crocea Mors.

Of course, even with his continued lack of success Jaune had continued his attempts to use aura infusion with Crocea Mors, as much because he had little else to do with his aura as it was because he hoped to acquire the skill. Seeing as aura's passive attribute enhancement cost so little aura as to be unnoticeable the only expenditure of aura he had to deal with was in regards to his aura shield which would probably go through an absolute maximum of half of his aura before he was killed from the damage that seeped through by exceeding his current 350 aura-per-second limit. While 350 points a second might look like a lot first glance, a second was becoming an increasingly long amount of time as Jaune grew stronger. In a manner that was perhaps befitting for someone whose nature forced them to seek out death's company to grow, Jaune's offensive ability far outstripped his defensive strength.

While he had never tried it, he was quite confident he was capable of piercing his own aura shield with a single solid hit with Crocea Mors which, when compounded with the fact that he was more than fast enough to attack several times in the span of a second, meant he could probably cut his own health down zero in, at most, 5 seconds, expending less than 2000 points of aura in the process. While this was a bit of an extreme case, considering his aura shield wasn't even to level 10 and he had a weapon with attack power scaling that increased faster than a Schnee's pride during puberty (extremely fast, in other words) it still meant that against an opponent of roughly equal strength a lot of damage would bleed through into health and eventually physical damage.

Of course, him dodging and blocking meant that he probably wouldn't end up taking multiple hits which likely meant a fair bit more than 2000 points of his aura would be expended before he was kill, the fact remained that a good portion of it would go to waste. This meant that even if he burned around half of his reserves every hour trying something in hopes it might work, he still wasn't harming his combat ability in any significant manner.

Letting out one last breath, Jaune opened his eyes and made to stand, wrapping one hand around Crocea Mors (which had been resting on his lap) as he did so, returning the sword to it his hip even as he stood. While he typically would have stashed it in his inventory while in a city he simply couldn't bring himself to trust the town's security. He'd learned an important lesson when an incident surrounding an attempt to bathe in a river while he was traveling had revealed the fact that his inventory was inaccessible during combat (leaving him running away from a pack of Beowolves half-naked) and he generally tried to refrain from stowing away Crocea Mors at any time he felt he might be in danger.

Drawing his blade, Jaune observed it momentarily, as if hoping the pristine metal would hold some answer to his inability to learn aura infusion. The flawless metal glinted even in the slightly dim room Jaune had rented for the night, almost seeming to gleam slightly with a faint splendor that it had lacked all those months ago, before he'd left home. Considering his opinion of his weapon prior to using observe on it, it probably wasn't surprising he had such a dull memory of it.

Taking hold of a small fraction of his aura, Jaune began slowly channeling into the blade bit by bit. While the blade seemed to shine faintly brighter (probably an effect of his aura) no other effect surfaced even as Jaune began pouring the equivalent of a hundred points of aura a second into the blade. After a few moments, having expended around a quarter of his aura, Jaune felt a surge of irritation and, after a moment, proceeded to dump as much aura as possible into Crocea Mors in as short a time period as he could manage. As if the weapon had been caught off guard, the blade momentarily glowed with intense light as Jaune's aura flowed through the weapon before, just as suddenly, the light dimmed and died as close to half Jaune's maximum aura reserves (around 8,000 points) simply disappeared.

With a groan of irritation Jaune cut off the flow of his aura, unwilling to drop himself below a quarter his full reserves in a location he considered unsafe, regardless of the fact that his reserves would be replenished in less than an hour even once fully depleted. Sheathing his sword Jaune glared at it momentarily before letting out a sigh "You really are a piece of work partner" he complained idly, somehow unable to get too aggravated with his weapon. Despite the nagging suspicion that his issue with aura channeling had something to do with the blade it had still served him extremely well and probably outmatched most other swords by several orders of magnitude even without aura channeling.

Sighing again Jaune set his blade against the wall alongside of his bed before turning off the small light illuminating his room. With a final sigh, Jaune slipped into the bed falling asleep in minutes within the quiet room.

Had Jaune remained awake even a few more minutes he might have noticed something odd. For a short moment, despite the complete lack of a light source with in the room, Crocea Mors glowed softly, so softly as to be practically unnoticeable even within the dark room. For but a moment, within the blade -or perhaps throughout it-, something ancient stirred softly for the first time in decades.

' _partner'_

* * *

When Jaune's instincts tore him from his slumber and the smoldering ember within his soul surged sharply into a raging bonfire Jaune was as unsurprised as he was solemn. Quickly readying himself Jaune grabbed Crocea Mors and slipped out the window, his eyes already darting around the settlement rapidly. When several haunting howls pierced the night, Jaune was one of only 2 who remained unsurprised, even as the residents of Kuroyuri awoke in shock and panic.

"Beowolves" Jaune murmured, recognizing the howls easily before turning in a specific direction and shooting off across the rooftops towards what appeared to be the densest collection of Grimm. Regardless of Jaune's opinions regarding the mindsets of the settlement's founders, it simply wasn't in his nature to let people be harmed and die in front of him. This in mind, Jaune moved as quickly as he could as the sound of combat broke out from ahead of him.

Reaching a house overlooking one Kuroyuri's entrances, Jaune found it already half overrun by what must have been more than hundred Beowolves, even as a scarce dozen ill trained guardsmen struggled ineffectually against them. Beowolves, as Grimm with strong pack instincts, worked quite well in conjunction with others of their kind meaning that although the guards (weak as they were) could probably kill 2 or 3 at time quiet easily the immense quantity of the beasts arrayed against them made it all but impossible for them to fell more than one or two collectively. The sheer numbers of Grimm present at the gate alone (to say nothing of the other packs Jaune could hear converging on the town from numerous other directions) was enough that even Jaune found it dangerous.

But that was it.

Dangerous. Against a force of Grimm that was appeared no different to an invincible horde to the guardsmen of Kuroyuri was merely a threat to Jaune. A threat no different than those that he had faced, deliberately, at every possible instant since he had left on this insane quest of his. Even as he leapt from the rooftops, landing and kicking off towards the battle with a force that shattered the stone beneath his feet, Jaune Arc's mind was perfectly at ease. Without giving the Beowolves time to even notice his presence Jaune tore into them with methodical efficiency, moving to annihilate them as quickly and as cleanly as possible. Even as his mind remained centered and focused Jaune found none of the usual thrill of combat, despite the genuine threat he was facing. Such a thing was for a fight where he alone stood at risk of death, in a fight such as this, where hundreds of lives were at stake, nothing short of the quickest and most efficient methods were permissible.

Crocea Mors tore through flesh and faux-bone armor again and again, it's phenomenal sharpness and natural affinity at killing the creatures of the dark backed with Jaune's own strength and speed letting the blade shear through the Grimm like wax paper, delivering one hit kill after one hit kill on the Grimm as the horde was cut down and reduced in size by the second. Recognizing the new threat the Beowolves futilely attempted to converge on Jaune, only quicken the rate at which he tore through them.

As if realizing lesser Grimm weren't enough a fierce roar pieced the battlefield and the Beowolves retreated slightly even as something else moved to challenge Jaune.

« **Alpha Beowolf LV 92** »

Covered from head to toe in sturdy spiked Armor the Alpha was considerably larger than any other Beowolf Jaune had seen, with a level that pushed the limit of Jaune's now level 32 Observe skill, at a level 30 above Jaune's own, the beast was probably the highest-level Grimm Jaune had ever met. Facing such an opponent Jaune, as if it was only natural, charged towards it without hesitation or fear.

Slipping to the side of the Grimm and dodging its bite even as he deflected one of its claws with his shield, Jaune swung Crocea Mors into its side carving out a divot of its armor as he did so. Smoothly blocking the Beowolf's counters with his shield, Jaune darted back slightly luring the Beowolf into following him before suddenly shooting forward, shield bashing the Grimm in its face and then swinging Crocea Mors unerringly, managing to carve out one of the beast's eyes before slipping back to dodge its furious counter. Retreating towards one of the buildings Jaune leapt into the air and onto one of the lower roofs as the Grimm followed him, furiously leaping upwards to pursue him even as Jaune counters, meeting it as it attempts to land with a full tilt charge and a shield bash to the face, flinging off the roof at a slightly upward angle.

Returning his shield to sheathe form and replacing it at his hip in an instant, Jaune moved, blurring across the rooftop to a different angle and leaping after the disoriented Grimm. Colliding with the Grimm, Jaune grabbed one of the spikes on its back using it and a foot firmly plant on the beast's back to forcibly rotated the Grimm mid-air all while angling Crocea Mors towards the ground. Stabbing downwards just as they impacted on the ground Jaune put his entire momentum from the fall along with all his strength into his attack. The extreme impact allowed the sword to Pierce the Beowolf's armor and sink several inches into its torso, just to the left of its spine. Without hesitating Jaune removed his blade from the Grimm and stabbed downwards in the same spot, fiercely digging deeper into it's flesh before withdrawing the blade and leaping back, dodging the Beowolf as forces itself up while clawing viciously at him.

Reconnecting with the ground, his shield once again firmly in hand, Jaune shot back towards his weakened opponent, relentlessly attacking from direction of its ruined eye. Crocea Mors connects again as Jaune succeeds in leaving yet another gash on the side of the alpha's face, prompting a reckless counter from the Grimm as it surges forward to tear his throat out, only to be met with yet another vicious shield bash. Slipping around the Grimm Jaune again impales it on its wounded back, tearing the blade to the right as he removes it, towards its spine, widening the injury even as he recovered, before following the Beowolf's back as it attempts to whirl towards him, suppressing his presence as he does so.

A single moment.

The Alpha Beowolf, caught unaware by the sudden disappearance of its opponent, freezes for but a single moment. Even as Jaune surges forward once more, his shield once more in sheathe form and both hands on Crocea Mors, it attempts to turn around, having seen through Jaune's trick after but a single split second and yet… too little to late. Crocea Mors again pierced through the Grimm slipping into the gap in its armor and, unwittingly aided by the beast's own rotation, reaches and then pierces through the Beowolf's spine.

Withdrawing his blade as the now paralyzed Grimm falls, Jaune immediately moved to finish off his weakened foe, all but ignoring its last futile struggles and finishing it off smoothly. Without celebrating his victory Jaune quickly returned to shredding apart lesser Beowolves with peak efficiency.

While the Beowolf had been much higher level than Jaune, it's combat strength had been only slightly greater than the Ursa Major Jaune had killed a month ago. Despite a 30-level gap, Beowolves were simply a weak species of Grimm, to the extent that Jaune's own physical strength slightly surpassed the Beowolf. In fact, just about the only reason he'd fought the Grimm in such a flashy manner was because it would take too long to kill it conventionally.

Jaune's analysis of the Alpha Beowolf combat ability occurred in an instant with the corner of his mind even as he mowed down most of the remaining Beowolves before shooting off onto the rooftops to where the fighting was more intense, leaving the remaining guards to deal with the stragglers as best they could.

* * *

Even as Jaune flitted across the settlement, moving from battle to battle and struggling to save as many as he could, a horrible thought began to take hold in his mind, centered around something only he, from a perspective removed from the direct threat of death -or rather from one largely unfazed by it- likely noticed.

The Grimm were far to organized.

Oh sure, the Grimm within Kuroyuri didn't fight like an army or anything, in fact they fought no differently than normal in regards to personal combat. At first glance it would seem like any other random Grimm attack, albeit on a larger scale, but it was the way the Grimm had arrived that was abnormal. Even a quick peak over the wall of the settlement had revealed no more Grimm approaching the city, something that most would find relieving yet to Jaune was only horrifying, if only due to its implications. If no more Grimm were being drawn to the city, despite the massive spike of negative emotions surging with in it, then it simply meant there were no Grimm left to be drawn in. Rather than a small Grimm attack escalating as the negative emotions of the settlements residents drew in more Grimm, it was like every single Grimm within several tens of miles of the settlement had spontaneously gathered together, waiting for more distant Grimm to arrive, before proceeding to attack the settlement from every direction simultaneously.

It drew attention to something else Jaune had overlooked until then, a certain minor yet world shattering detail he had completely ignored hidden within his Oracle. The Grimm hadn't attacked Vale directly after the explosion, despite the fact that stragglers should have been drawn to the city in literal minutes by the massive influx of negativity. For nearly 3 whole hours not a single Grimm had shown up before they proceeded to completely flood the city all at once. On that note, there was no damn reason Grimm strong enough to overwhelm a family of hunters, 2 of which were A-rank, should have been drawn to a hamlet of a settlement with barely 100 residents. Yet instead of being drawn to the mass of negativity that was the city of Vale, literal dozens of A and B-rank Grimm had descended on his home, like they somehow knew it would require that much force to wipe the settlement out or were otherwise actually _targeting_ his family.

On that note, even the composition of Grimm attacking Kuroyuri seemed far too effective to be a coincidence. Masses of E-rank Grimm with the occasional D-rank scattered around, Grimm weak enough that being spotted or reported before now wouldn't have provoked any real level of response or investigation from hunters or the kingdoms other military branches and yet was more than enough to crush Kuroyuri. It had been barely 25 minutes since the first Grimm had appeared and Kuroyuri was already on its last legs, even with Jaune's best efforts. Most of the surviving residents had converged near the center of the settlement and were just barely holding on.

Having centralized his own efforts around the survivors Jaune halted for a single moment as a horde of Grimm gathered and surged towards the weary survivors, seeking to crush the hastily put together formation of guards and armed civilians. Without giving it a second glance Jaune continued eliminating Grimm approaching the survivors as quickly as he could, disregarding the horde entirely. A moment later the entire horde was dead, cut down by an untraceable blur in a fraction of a second. The blur returned into the center of the ragged formation as quickly as it had appeared. While Jaune didn't bother looking, busy as he was, he knew what he would find if he looked at the spot the blur had stopped.

He would find a man who appeared to be in his mid-60's, clutching his chest in pain and shaking in exhaustion. The man in question had been the irregular aura signature Jaune had detected when he first arrived in the settlement. While the man possessed Aura reserves nearly twice Jaune's own and a level beyond the detection of Jaune's observe skill the man was, despite only fighting in what have been shorts bursts that summed up to maybe a minute's worth of time, exhausted and clearly in pain. Even without seeing the man's status sheet Jaune had managed to put two and two together and realized that for some reason the man's aura wasn't flowing properly to certain parts of his body. While it flowed correctly to his limbs, head, and lower torso, the flow of Aura within an area centered around the man's heart was in horrible shape, even to an amateur's eyes.

Considering his speed when he did move, Jaune figured he probably use to be at least a greatly above average B-rank hunter if not an A-rank one. Regardless of his former prowess, his actual value in this fight was probably lower than Jaune's. Even if most of his body was as strong as an A-rank hunter's his heart was incapable of keeping up with the demands of the rest his body, and even a few seconds of motion at higher speeds was almost more than his heart could handle. Against an endless horde of weaker Grimm, the man had to save whatever strength he could for moments when the Grimm were crunched close enough together than he could cut down a large amount in an extremely efficient manner.

Jaune on the other hand could operate at fully capacity non-stop for long period of time between his fairly high endurance score and the simple fact that effectively being a video game character tended to fudge some conventional restrictions. While his stamina wasn't necessarily unlimited, things like cramps, oxygen deficiency and muscle tears were translated into miniscule amounts Health damage, meaning that so long as he had the willpower to keep moving (*cough* gamer's mind) he could continue to do so at a minimal cost. So, even though Jaune was panting like a dog and down a few hundred points of health, he was still fully capable of going all out for quite a bit longer. That said, it felt weird how his muscles kept shifting from increasingly high levels of soreness and pain to being perfectly fine once they passed a specific threshold, were counted as damage, and were promptly negated in exchange for a bit of health.

Unexpected functions of his semblance aside, Jaune was growing increasingly worried. Returning to the subject of a potential culprit behind this attack, Jaune had begun worrying that if his guess was correct, a portion of that plan might pertain to dealing with largely crippled former hunter. While the never-ending mobs of cannon fodder may have been sufficient in bringing him down eventually, the numbers of Grimm were finally (blessedly) beginning to wane. While Jaune's presence could be considered an unexpected factor, it seemed a little flimsy for someone who otherwise set the stage so carefully (if Jaune was correct and this wasn't just a random attack) that some random D-rank aura user would be able to prevent complete annihilation. While it was possible that a potential culprit would be satisfied with severe damage and mass casualties he somehow felt, considering the occurrences of his oracle, that a person somehow ruling over Grimm would accept nothing less than complete annihilation.

Perhaps it was simply his nature as a Gamer speaking, but as the number of Grimm fell, first below one hundred, then down to a few dozen, then to none, as he himself impaled the last Ursa and the surviving civilians began cheering in relief, a single phrase began to increasingly dominate his mind. A universal concept of fighting games with few exceptions and the reason he remained on full alert even as the battle apparently ended.

When a horrible cry, somehow more intimidating than that of the hundreds of Grimm that had descended upon Kuroyuri tore through the streets, cutting down the civilian's cheers in their throats even as they scrambled to reacquire their makeshift weapons, fear returning to their faces, and Jaune turned to face what he'd already known was coming, that phrase echoed again in his mind once more.

'Boss battle'

 **«Nuckelavee lv ?»**

Fear. Despite the somewhat childish way Jaune had referred to the Grimm now approaching him, letting out heart rending screeches of rage and promises of death, Jaune felt genuine fear. For the first time, he stood staring death in the face knowing he would not, could not, win. Unlike his previous battles, where there was at least some small opportunity, some miniscule weakness he could exploit or opening he could find, his opponent was simply too strong. There was simply nothing he could do; he was going to die. Even as he used Gamer's mind to suppress his fear and despair, working upon pure logic he came to the same conclusion. There was nothing in his skill set that would let him walk out of this fight alive. Panic returning, he retreated, trying to distance himself from the Grimm so he could do something, anything, despite knowing it was all but futile.

He didn't make it more than half a dozen feet before an unbelievable force bore into him from behind, tearing Crocea Mors from his hand and launching him through one side of a building out the other, bouncing several times on the cobblestone ground before impacting another wall and finally coming to a stop as the taste of blood filled his mouth. Ignoring the pain in his body Jaune spat out the blood in his mouth before freezing in shock. The implications of tasting blood hitting Jaune like a hammer a mere moment before a dull, gender neutral voice confirmed his fears.

" _Health has been reduced to zero, Gamer's body has been temporarily disabled" the voice droned._

Jaune froze, dumbly concluding that he'd received a verbal announcement because he'd disable popups during combat, before shaking himself and forcing himself to focus rather than attempting to escape reality. While he taken a bit of damage fighting the other Grimm he had had at least 7000 health points left. Had, before he had taken a single attack that dropped that to zero and still injured him enough that it hurt to stand. As screams and the sound of battle broke out from behind him Jaune made to return before freezing. While he still had plenty of aura he was still injured and tired, the burden on his body no longer mitigated by health points, and on top of that Crocea Mors had been knocked away when he'd been hit by the Grim-

At that moment, as if to refute him, Crocea Mors landed blade first in the ground 3 feet away from him, having apparently been knocked into a high parabola by the Grimm's attack and only just returned to the ground. Recovering and sheathing his traitorously loyal sword with a slight grimace, Jaune glanced back towards the sounds of the battle, all the Nuckelavee's screeches growing steadily softer as the beast rampaged unmatched.

No matter how much he hated himself for it, he couldn't help. He had to run. If he died here no one would be able to stop the tragedy in Vale from occurring, no one would be able to save his family from being killed. He had tried and done all he could but he couldn't die until he'd saved his home.

Even as Jaune made that shaky resolution a made to flee a voice, heard above the roar combat against all odds, forced its way into Jaune's eardrums "Mom!" a voice Jaune somehow recognized as belonging to the boy he'd seen just yesterday "Please no!" he cried desperately as Jaune froze stock still.

'I can't do anything' Jaune insisted to himself 'I can't…'

"Mom!" the boy screamed again, his voice drowned in desperation.

'If I go there won't be anyone to save Vale' Jaune reminded himself desperately.

' _If you don't, who will be there to save them?'_

"Damn it" Jaune mumbled, tightening his grip on Crocea Mors

' _If you run now, who's to say you won't do so again, when Vale is a stake?'_

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn IT!" he roared helplessly even as he spun around, drawing Crocea Mors.

Ignoring his injuries Jaune sprinted back towards the battle just in time to see the crippled huntsmen eviscerate one of the monstrous Grimm's legs causing the horse that made up its lower half to fall to its knees. Hope momentarily filled Jaune before the hunter stumbled, coughing up blood and falling to his knees, clutching his chest in visible agony. Roaring with rage the Nuckelavee batted the huntsman with its arm sending him flying into a wall where he collapsed unmoving.

'what do I do?' Jaune panicked, his eyes darting around, desperately seeking an answer he believed no one would give him.

' _Trust me' a voice that made no sound assured him, resonating within his very soul and filling him with warmth._

Jaune exhaled a single time as his fear and doubt inexplicably fled. Gripping the blade of Crocea Mors with both hands Jaune charged towards the Nuckelavee with a certainty betraying the fact that he was moving on mere impulse and 2 simple words from something he shouldn't trust and yet couldn't bring himself not to.

Locking eyes with the still kneeling Grimm in front of him Jaune Arc drew on every drop of aura remaining in his body and without hesitating for a moment pours nearly all of it into his blade, leaving only enough aura to maintain its passive effects, forgoing even his aura shield for just a little more power. This time, instead of vanishing inexplicably into the sword, his aura clings to the blade brightly as what feels like every drop of aura Jaune had ever attempted to infuse into the sword bursts to the surface at once, covering the blade in a furious white and golden light. Confined within the sword, the light of his soul rages, unwilling to be constrained or restricted. Yet even as Jaune struggled to maintain hold on the burning aura, something supersedes him, gently pushing him aside and taking over, as the aura within the blade stops raging and stinging in his hands, solidifying and become momentarily stable. One attack, Jaune suddenly knows. One attack is all he has to make this count.

The Nuckelavee screeches again as Jaune nears it, all too aware of the tremendous power seeping from Crocea Mors. Its arms shoot out at Jaune even as he charges it, seeking to kill the that which threatens it. ' _One attack'_ , the not-voice reminds him softly, he cannot counter and without his shield he cannot block, dodging completely is impossible. Jaune moves without hesitation, tilting his body sideways and slipping through the beasts extending arms, Jaune ignores the feeling of flesh being torn as one of the monster's claws tear a divot of flesh out of his back, focusing fully on his still immobilized opponent. Leaping into the air Jaune let out a wordless roar as he swung Crocea Mors towards the twisted visage of the Nuckelavee even as it let out another blood curdling screech.

When Crocea Mors impacted point first with the monster's face night momentarily turned to day as an unbelievable amount of power was released in a single moment directly into the Nuckelavee face, tearing apart the monster's head like it was shale and continuing on to obliterate the majority of its lower body as an immense shockwave tore through the ruined city.

Still carried by the momentum of his charge Jaune bounces once and then twice on the ground before finally skidding to a stop, all strength leaving him save enough to keep a grip on his blade. As his eyes drift shut and darkness overcomes him Jaune just barely felt the sound of words reverberating in his soul, spoken in a 'voice' that sounded just as exhausted and expended as Jaune felt and yet still radiated a feeling of approval that set Jaune at ease

' _Not bad partner, not bad at all'_

To those last words, Jaune managed a slight grin even as his conscious faltered and then faded into black.

* * *

 **Chapter 3: A Hero's Burden: End.**

 **Going to keep author's note fairly short this time to make it more likely that people will actually bother to read it XD.**

 **First, please trust me when I say I'm not going to make Jaune completely OP, compared to the opponents he'll eventually be facing in his little quest at least. The Nuckelavee was a mid to high C-rank Grimm that Jaune only beat (at the cost of grievous injury at that) because of a literally perfect opening and opportunity, it's normally the type of thing that could kill him from full health with literally 2 solid hits at this point.**

 **Secondly, Crocea Mors is indeed sentient, something I lightly hinted through it's apparent refusal to be wielded by those not of the Arc line. The exact nature of its sentience and currently dormant abilities will come to light later, but I will say most of them (including supercharged aura infusion) will be inaccessible more often than not even once Jaune reaches A-rank level or above.**

 **Finally, interaction with Ren and Nora will occur next chapter, so don't worry about them not making an appearance.**


	5. Chapter 4: Down the Rabbit Hole

**I am considering Ren's first name to be Ren and his last name to be Lie for the moment. I don't think it was properly clarified otherwise in Canon, but correct me if I'm wrong.**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Down the Rabbit Hole**

* * *

The first thing Jaune became aware of as his consciousness returned slowly was the slight shaking of the comfortable surface beneath him and an oddly nostalgic sound that reminded him of one of the carts the farmers in his village used while making their way down the road. Dimly acknowledging the padded cloth beneath him and blankets covering him Jaune momentarily attempted to go back to sleep. He needed it after that fight…

Jaune froze momentarily before shooting up, taking in his surrounds in a panic as the haze lifted from his mind and the memories of before he lost consciousness returned with a start. He was in the back of a covered wagon, part of a caravan judging by the sound of other carts from outside. As he slipped out from under the blankets and moved to stand, a small gasp from behind him drew his attention. Blue eyes met Magenta as Jaune found himself locking eyes with the seated form of a familiar boy, Jaune's sudden movements having apparently awoken the other boy from where he was dozing. The boy was somewhat thin with black hair and a somewhat pale complexion. The other boy stared at Jaune in surprise mixed with a hint of awe before moving suddenly.

Stunned momentarily, Jaune found himself unable to react as the boy turned towards the front of the wagon, yelling loudly "Mom! Dad! Great Grandfather! He's awake!"

Jaune tensed, reaching for his weapon only to find Crocea Mors absent from his hip, dimly noting his torso was bare save for extensive bandages crisscrossing it and that someone must have changed his clothes while he was unconscious, before settling for fixing his posture to one that wouldn't inhibit his movement.

"I'll deal with it." a slightly gruff voice assured, clearly talking to someone else as sounds of movement resounded from the front of the cart. "Already?" the same voice queried in slight surprise even as a man slipped through the front flap of the wagon and into its interior, meeting Jaune's cautious gaze with a slightly raised eyebrow.

Recovering from his confusion somewhat, Jaune finally noticed the large aura signature nearby, even as he recognized the crippled hunter from the night before with a start. The man met his gaze evenly for a moment, before Jaune let out a slight sigh and dropped his guard, grimacing slightly at the spark of amusement he saw passing through the old hunter's eyes. While the cripple huntsman was only able to move at full speed for a few seconds, making him vulnerable to large numbers of foes, Jaune held no delusions that it would require more than 2 or 3 seconds (if that) for the hunter to completely trounce him, making any wariness largely pointless in this case.

A slight groan from nearby drew both Jaune and the crippled huntsman's gazes to an orange haired girl sleeping on the other boy's leg that Jaune had previous not noticed "what's going on Ren?" a slightly subdued voice mumbled weakly as the girl woke up in a haze, looking around drearily "why are you shouting?" she continued nervously, clinging to the.

"ah" The now identified Ren froze, momentarily taken aback, before replying apologetically "Sorry Nora, it's just he woke up" extenuating his statement by pointing towards Jaune with one hand.

The girl, Nora, followed Ren's hand, meeting Jaune's gaze as she sharply sat up, all signs of sleep vanishing from her expression as she stared at him with ill-concealed awe.

The old huntsman snorted "Ren, if you don't mind, why don't you and your little girlfriend head up front with your parents, there should be enough space up there with me back here. I need to check the boy's injuries and I doubt he wants you gawking him like he's some kind of rare artifact."

Nora panicked slightly at this "Were not together! I mean we're together but we're not together-together, not that Ren isn't handsome or anything because he is but…" the girl faltered her face glowing red as she looked down in embarrassment.

Placing a comforting hand on her shoulder and giving her a reassuring smile when she looked at him, the dark-haired boy looked back at the old huntsman "Of course Great Grandfather" the boy agreed "Nora and I don't mind at all" he continued, gently leading the still embarrassed girl towards the front of the wagon and out of sight. With the two of them gone, Jaune and the old huntsmen returned to their staring contest.

The old man snorted lightly after a moment "You've got eyes I'd call good if I saw them in any huntsman I've ever met, yet in a child can only bring myself to call a tragedy." The man murmured, an odd influx of emotions in his voice "here" he reached down, picking up something and tossing it at Jaune. Despite his momentary surprise, Jaune caught it with the greatest of ease, the sheathed form of Crocea Mors settling into his hands naturally and without conscious thought.

"So you are a member of that family after all." the man mused "What brings an Arc to the only continent that thinks the world would've been better off without them?"

Jaune's panic didn't surface on his face as he forced himself to mimic confusion "What are you talking about?" he murmured in what many would see as genuine confusion.

"Don't bother playing innocent, I'd recognize that sword in your hands half-dead and without both my eyes. Crocea Mors, the historic blade of Vale's most famous family, and the most infamous weapon in the world to most Mistralean's old enough to remember the day it and its last wielder tore through most of Mistral's hunter corps." The old man muttered softly, his tone almost wistful "and judging by the way it's sitting in your hands like the most balanced sword in the world rather than a piece of crap, you're definitely an Arc. You aren't my equal in swordsmanship by a longshot and that thing felt like a hunk of unprocessed iron in my hands."

Jaune's eyes flickered to the wagons flap momentarily before meeting the man's gaze once more, a question on his lips.

"No, I didn't and they don't" The old hunter cut him off "I didn't tell them who you are and no one in Kuroyuri other than me would recognize that blade on sight." Something about the man's tone put Jaune on guard "I only recognized that blade because of what it's done to me," the old hunter continued as an overwhelming pressure descended on Jaune, threatening to crush even gamer's mind as the huntsman approached "I only recognized that blade because it killed my friends, because it killed my very own brother, because it crippled me," Jaune found himself unable to move as the old huntsman approached, certain he was about to die when "and now it's made a liar and an oath breaker out of me in a single night." the man finished, the overwhelming pressure vanishing like it hadn't existed as the old hunter moved behind Jaune, shifting the bandages covering Jaune's torso aside gently and examining Jaune's now healed wounds.

"W-what." Jaune managed, still all but paralyzed.

The old hunter didn't answer for a moment as he continued removing the bandages, confirming Jaune's injuries had healed to the greatest extent they likely ever would, reduced from a nearly fatal wound to an extensive patch of scar tissue that stretched in a jagged line across the entirety of Jaune's back.

"Healed already," the man mumbled "barely 2 days and the scars already look months old, although this is probably as good as there going to get." He concluded, removing the rest of the now pointless bandages and stepping back as Jaune turned to face him, acknowledging the unasked question in the boy's eyes.

The man was silent for a moment, as if uncertain where to begin, before the words seemed to come to him and he began speaking "As you might have guessed I'm a lot older than I look -like most huntsman- old enough that I fought during the great war more than 70 years ago." The man wet his lips, his eyes already somewhere else "one of only 2 A-rank hunters specializing in medical techniques at the time, which is the only reason I survived when your ancestor slaughtered my entire unit, why I survived getting run through the heart by the same blade you currently wield. Yet even I couldn't heal all the damage, and I wound up a cripple who could only fight seriously for a handful of seconds before tiring." The man paused momentarily "I swore to myself that if I ever met another wielder of that cursed blade I would do anything I could to remove them from the face of Remnant" the pressure returned momentarily before fading "and yet for all that blade has taken from me…" the man trailed off, lost in his memories "for all it has taken from me…. It's saved what little I have left, and in doing so made me a liar."

"What do you mean… how did…?" Jaune mumbled, clearly confused.

"My brother and my parents are dead, my children as well. All I have left is my granddaughter, my grandson-in-law, and young Ren, my great-grandson." The hunter replied tiredly "Now someone wielding a blade I've sworn vengeance against has come along and saved all three in the same night. There is no wrong worth enough in revenge to match the magnitude of the debt of gratitude I owe you for saving them. So, my oath of vengeance must ring hollow and I'm bound by what's left of my honor to see my debt to you repaid."

Jaune's throat was dry, he knew he shouldn't mention it but "I nearly ran away… I nearly abandoned all of you to save myself…"

"I know" the old hunter replied "which only makes my debt all that much deeper."

Jaune blinked in confusion "I said I nearly abandoned you all and let them die because I was scared, because I was a coward! How is that…."

"If an S-rank hunter had happened by Kuroyuri during that attack and slaughtered all the Grimm, I would have thanked them, and perhaps humored a minor request, but not put myself under a debt of gratitude" the old hunter replied "because for that hunter, slaying those Grimm wouldn't have even required the least bit of effort or involved the slightest amount of risk. For you, terrified and facing an opponent you had no right to defeat, anything less than the annulment of my vendetta and a debt of gratitude would be an insult to my very principles." The hunter paused momentarily "A poor man donating half a Lien is backed by more meaning that a Schnee donating half a million Lien; compared to one with little still managing to give to others the gifts of those with far more than they need is of little worth."

"I still…" Jaune trailed off "I still almost ran away and left you all to die."

"Almost… but you didn't" the hunter refuted "terrified and unsure that you could even make a difference you came back and put your life on the line for a bunch of strangers." He old hunter declared firmly "that you had to face that fear only makes my debt greater."

The inside of the wagon grew quiet for a few moments.

Clearing his throat Jaune broke the silence after a moment "Where are we headed right now?"

"Mistral" the hunter replied shortly "Kuroyuri's finished, less than a fifth the populace survived the attack and they're far too terrified to even think of trying to rebuild. With the CCT connection in this area still shot to hell and no way to call for help now, those who managed to survive gathered what little they could and scattered to the winds."

"Why did you even try?" Jaune spoke suddenly, unable to stop himself "you at least should have known this outcome was inevitable, even without an attack like this, eventually…" he trailed off.

"Yeah, I did." The hunter replied "but we didn't have a choice" he continued sadly "I assume you've notice Ren has an unlocked aura pool?" he asked before continuing as Jaune nodded "We didn't want him to go through a hunter's life, but now it looks like there's no choice. He was quite sickly when he was younger, enough that we had to leave Mistral and unlock his aura just so he could survive. As I assume you know, people living in Mistral can only legally have unlocked aura if they are hunters or within the hunter training program at some level. Youngest age to start training is 10, he'd have died before he was 5 without aura. He's in much better health now, in fact, if anything it's his aura that's the problem, seeing as he's got no choice but to join the hunter program in Mistral now, with his parents not feeling safe remaining outside the cities' wall anymore, not that I blame them."

Jaune didn't know how to respond, simply staring at the old huntsman in shock.

The old huntsman sighed, turning around "Get some sleep, we'll talk more later, we're still far enough off from Mistral that you don't need worry about it quite yet." The hunter ordered lightly, leaving the interior of the wagon.

Jaune stared after the now absent hunter with a spark of guilt, recalling his initial opinion in regards to the people of Kuroyuri and finding himself wondering just how many of its residents hadn't had half the choice he'd assumed they had. Letting out a sigh Jaune returned to his make-shift sleeping spot, intent on following the huntsman's advice only to be set upon by a sudden bombardment of popups, one in particular catching Jaune's eye.

* * *

 **All notifications are by default concealed during cut scenes, this can be changed in the options tab.**

* * *

Closing the first notification, Jaune idly wondered why this hadn't applied during his freak out just after his oracle, before concluding that excessive fear simply didn't count as a cut scene. At this thought, yet another popup appeared in front of the others, instantly drawing Jaune's gaze.

* * *

 **For realizing that panicking and crying like a little bitch does not constitute as a cut scene, you have gained 1 point of Intelligence!**

* * *

"... ass" Jaune complained, twitching slightly before shaking himself and moving on, deciding to close the mish-mash of experience gain popups, aside from the Nuckelavee's, without reading them. With the rough equivalent of spam mail gone, Jaune returned his attention to more significant popups

* * *

 **Nuckelavee (level 153) has been slain, 500,000 Experience has been gained:**

 **(20,000) base *5 (trait modifier) *10 (a dance at Death's Border) *.5 (assistance received) = 500,000)**

* * *

 **Congratulations! You are now level 81! You have 95 attribute points to spend!**

* * *

 **Title acquisition parameters met, Title** **«** **Underdog** **» has been** **acquired.**

* * *

 **Congratulations! You have acquired your first title. Titles are a representation of an individual's achievements or abilities and provide unique effects varying from Title to title. While Titles initially must be equipped for this effect to apply, continued repetition of acquisition conditions will eventually allow a Title's effects to remain active even while the Title is not equipped. The gamer may currently equip up to a maximum of 1 title at any given time.**

* * *

 **Skill «** **Aura mastery** **»** **is now level 23! Parameters for tier up passed, skill** **«** **Aura mastery** **»** **has ranked up into skill** **«** **Advanced Aura mastery** **»** **!** **«** **Advanced Aura mastery** **»** **now level 23!**

* * *

 **Aura sub-skill,** **«** **Aura channeling** **»** **acquired!** **«** **Aura Channeling** **»** **is now level 13!**

* * *

 **Aura sub-skill,** **«** **Aura shield** **»** **is now level 12!**

* * *

 **Skill** **«** **Advanced bladed weapon mastery** **»** **is now level 39!**

* * *

 **Skill** **«** **Defensive arts** **»** **is now level 40!**

* * *

 **Skill** **«** **Subversive arts** **»** **is now level 50!**

* * *

 **Skill** **«** **Superior eyesight** **»** **is now level 18!**

* * *

 **For correctly reading the flow of present events and situations to predict future events, skill** **«** **Oracle** **»** **is now level 11!**

* * *

 **For examining the formation and deployment of many enemies and understanding the tactical significance of certain patterns, skill** **«** **Tactics** **»** **has been acquired. Skill** **«** **Tactics** **»** **is now level 13!**

* * *

 **Skill** **«** **Observe** **»** **is now level 37!**

* * *

 **For riding an alpha Beowolf into the ground skill** **«** **Legendary Nevermore knight** **»** **is now level 48! You are now capable of proper landings while riding Beowolves!**

* * *

 **For enduring high levels of physical damage with no health points remaining, passive skill** **«** **Physical Damage resistance** **»** **has been acquired. Skill** **«** **Physical damage resistance** **»** **is now level 7!**

* * *

 **For recovering from severe injuries received while gamer's body was disabled, skill** **«** **Rapid recovery** **»** **has been acquired! Skill** **«** **Rapid recovery** **»** **is now level 8!**

* * *

 **Based on certain behaviors and actions, a new trait has started to develop. Depending on the gamer's future actions in similar situations this trait will either fully manifest or fade.**

* * *

Smirking slightly at the growth of his level and most of his skill masteries, Jaune attempted to ignore the unnecessary growth of a certain skill he would rather not existed (how the hell do even land a Beowolf in the first place, they don't fly!). While he was slightly interested in the fact that he was potentially developing a new trait, Jaune figured it wouldn't be manifesting fully anytime soon and put it out of his mind, focusing on attribute gains. Adding up the various individual gains, Jaune had gained a total of 13 points of vitality, 7 points of endurance, 4 points in strength, 3 points in dexterity, along with 3 and 2 points in intelligence and wisdom respectively. Despite the fact that his gains in Vitality and endurance were undoubtedly a result of getting smacked through a wall and then nearly getting mauled by the Nuckelavee, he was still quite happy about the considerable gains. Smirk still firmly on his face, Jaune quickly set about expending his free stat points, focusing heavily on his dexterity along with his vitality and strength to a lesser extent, only putting a few points into his remaining three attributes. Confirming his choices, Jaune examined his new stats, the effects of his now boosted aura modifier becoming extremely apparent.

* * *

 _ **Name: Jaune Arc**_

 _ **Title: Underdog**_

 _ **Age: 10 years**_

 _ **Aging rate: 65% standard human rate**_

 _ **Lv: 81**_

 _ **Health: 12512 [100%]**_

 _ **Health regen: 5.17% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)**_

 _ **Aura: 24292.5 [100%]**_

 _ **Aura regen: 4.61% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)**_

 _ **Vitality: 181 (441)**_

 _ **Endurance: 171 (417)**_

 _ **Strength: 187 (456)**_

 _ **Dexterity: 231 (563)**_

 _ **Intelligence: 166 (405)**_

 _ **Wisdom: 148 (361)**_

 _ **Stat points: 0**_

 _ **Luck: ?**_

 _ **Charisma: ?**_

* * *

Jaune allowed himself to be heartened by his progress momentarily before bringing himself back on track, bringing up detailed descriptions of his new skills and title.

* * *

 **Underdog: Granted for defeating an opponent you should have stood no chance at defeating. When fighting an opponent at least 30 levels above your own, all attributes increase by 10% of the difference between you and your opponent's attribute values for the duration of combat. If one of your attributes has a higher value than your opponent, no bonus is added. Title currently must be equipped for effects to apply.**

* * *

 **Tactics lv 13: The ability to effectively command large numbers of combatants, this skill can also be used to interpret, predict, and counter the actions of others, even while fighting alone.**

* * *

 **Physical damage resistance (passive) lv 7: Increases durability of physical body, reducing damage taken when Gamer's body is disabled. Does not affect damage to health points.**

* * *

 **Rapid recovery lv 8 (passive) lv 8: Increases the rate at which the physical body heals from injuries taken when Gamer's body is disabled. Slightly decreases the degree of scarring from severe wounds. Does not affect restoration rate of health points.**

* * *

Jaune's face grew slightly grim. While his new title and skills were quite useful in regards to survivability, reading the description of the tactics skill had reminded Jaune of his line of thought in regards to the attack on Kuroyuri. Lying down on his make-shift bed, Jaune began reanalyzing the entire situation in more detail. This time his thoughts were more focused and concise thanks both to his boosted intelligence and wisdom scores as well as the fact that he wasn't more preoccupied fighting creatures of darkness en masse. The appearance of the Nuckelavee only increase his suspicions in regards to the attack.

Judging by how the old hunter had managed to ruin its leg before being downed, even after having been severely exhausted from the long fight, Jaune was pretty sure he could have downed it in a second or two when he was fully rested, even with his heart condition. The fact that it had shown up at the very end of the battle when the old hunter was almost completely spent and had then proceeded to target Jaune specifically before anyone else, like it knew he was the next biggest threat (however minimal a threat he should have been) felt a bit too smart. In fact, now that Jaune looked back, the Grimm had started deliberately grouping in hordes with increasing regularity even as the number of Grimm dropped, almost like they were deliberately enticing the older huntsman in order to ensure his stamina was as depleted as possible. It was a string of unnatural coincidences certainly, but if there was someone pulling the strings behind the Grimm, someone in power should have noticed it and it would be public knowledge by now.

"or would it?" Jaune whispered to himself as he discarded his initial assumption.

If someone or something was in control of the Grimm, then that meant the Grimm were capable of organizing and functioning with all the cohesion of an army. Fighting back the Grimm was difficult, even with the fact that they typically acted wildly and without thought, and with a leader capable of controlling them they would become more dangerous to a degree of increasing magnitudes. On the other hand if the Grimm suddenly united, there was a large chance of humanity doing the same, roughly leveling the playing field with one key difference. The existence of something controlling the Grimm would be publicly revealed in short order and that existence would undoubtedly be fiercely targeted.

This line of thinking led to an impasse: Assuming certain individuals in power were aware of this manipulator, revealing it would cause panic and remove any reason for said manipulator to limit their manipulation of the Grimm to remain incognito, giving them free reign to start ravaging humanity, even if humanity would quickly unite and level the playing field. Conversely if the manipulator started freely organizing the Grimm and attacking then those aware of them would reveal its existence, leading to humanity uniting and targeting whatever was controlling the Grimm.

If either side made such a move, it would only end in destruction and a war where neither side was certain of the victor, which neither of the two prospective sides likely wanted. This left the best course of action available to either side in the form of highly covert shadow war, spanning the entirety of remnant with the vast majority of its participants completely unaware of it. As Jaune came to this chilling conclusion 2 popups appeared in front of him.

* * *

 **For piecing together information and recognizing the existence of the constant war that has been fought in the shadows of Remnant for hundreds of years, skill** **«** **tactics** **»** **has received an immense experience boost! Skill** **«** **tactics** **»** **is now level 31! Parameters cleared, Skill** **«** **tactics** **»** **has ranked up into skill** **«** **Military tactics** **»** **!** **«** **Military tactics** **»** **is now level 31!**

* * *

Jaune barely finished reading the first popup before closing it a quickly, turning his gaze to the second one, a fierce expression of tension mixed with unwavering determination fixed upon his face.

* * *

 **Quest: Down the Rabbit hole**

 **You have become aware that the war against the Grimm is far more complicated that it first appeared. Learn more about the battle raged for Remnant and how to end it for good.**

 **Quest details:**

 **With a series of coincidences too difficult to ignore together with the events of your oracle you have become aware of the forces manipulating the Grimm against humanity.**

 **The old guard: There is no doubt that you are but the most recent of many to uncover the global shadow war spanning remnant, that means there are undoubtedly those who already move in opposition to the forces threatening humanity.**

 **Stalemate: With both sides unwilling to make moves that have questionable outcomes, both sides will do not yet desire open war, desiring to deal a great enough blow to tip the scales prior to leaving the shadows.**

 **Long stride, longer Journey: With what you have learned it has become apparent that the plot to destroy Vale is likely only one move, however significant, within a greater game.**

 **Quest objective:**

 **Learn more about both sides of the shadow war (incomplete)**

 **Gain the trust of the group protecting humanity from the shadows (incomplete)**

 **Join the game (incomplete)**

 **Time remaining: until the destruction of humanity or humanities' enemy.**

 **Quest success rewards: induction into ?, able to more successfully defend humanity from mass threats, ?, additional rewards depending on quest performance**

 **Quest failure: War has reached a conclusion without your direct input, humanity is either extinct or it's adversary vanquished.**

* * *

With a sigh Jaune closed the popup, pushing its contents out of his mind. Despite the enormity of what he'd pieced together, his current course of action changed little. Even if the destruction of Vale was only a single move amongst dozens it didn't change the fact that stopping that move was the only thing that currently mattered to Jaune. Perhaps later, years from now when he'd saved Vale from its current crisis, he'd end up officially joining humanity's corner in the war raging just out of sight, but for today it mattered little, save for affirming the caliber of the enemy Jaune was facing.

His enemy might have been revealed to be only one part of a much worse whole, but it was one part that had to be defeated by Jaune. While the outcome of the shadow war could apparently go either way, Vale was currently doomed to annihilation without Jaune's direct interference. He simply wasn't strong enough to be able to affect the greater whole yet, even stopping this one move was going to take everything he had. For now, he couldn't afford to do anything but trust in whoever was opposing the entity behind the Grimm. Letting himself be overwhelmed by what he'd uncovered would only lower his odds of success so Jaune concluded that, for now, nothing had changed, saving Vale was furthest ahead he would look, and whatever future existed beyond that distant tomorrow would be faced when the time came and no sooner.

* * *

 **For deciding that drugs are bad when offered red and blue pills by M*rpheus and arguing that, for the moment, there may indeed be a spoon, you have gained 3 points of Wisdom and Intelligence. Quest** **«** **Down the Rabbit hole** **»** **has been disabled until the completion of the** **«** **Kingdom in Peril** **»** **quest.**

* * *

"Is that supposed to be a reference of some sort?" Jaune mumbled idly before dismissing the popup. Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Jaune settled down for some well-deserved rest, sleeping on his successes for the moment with the resolution to build on them upon waking.

* * *

The next couple of days went by quickly. Seeing as Mistral was already his goal, Jaune had opted to remain with the small caravan of roughly 3 dozen former residents of Kuroyuri until they had all but reached Mistral, at which point he'd be forced to depart and enter the city through a less than legal method. It was odd for Jaune, seeing the blatant relief that had appeared in the expressions of most of the people making up the ragged band of travelers when he had first expressed his intention to remain until just before they'd arrived at the city. For someone who had been considered a weakling for the vast majority of his life or otherwise hadn't previously stuck around long enough for people to get over their shock in regards to his actions, the attitude the former residents of Kuroyuri took up around him felt almost alien.

Despite what had happened to them, most of the caravan felt safe. Safe because of him, because he was present. Whenever he returned outside to the front of a covered wagon after sleeping to watch out for Grimm, he could visibly see the tension fade from people's bodies, like his mere presence made the woods safe and familiar rather than yet another hiding place for monsters. When he had asked them to not spread his description or identity (not that he'd shared it beyond his first name) once they arrived in Mistral they had agreed enthusiastically. At every meal and break he was quickly invited into the group and given the best of the food by unspoken unanimous agreement.

It had quickly grown uncomfortable for Jaune, both due to the knowledge that his parents or elder sister could have done the same, with far less casualties at that, and the fact that prior to his discussion with the old hunter (who had introduced himself as Kiero Lie the day after Jaune had awoken) he would have probably viewed them with an underlying 'you should have known' in regards to what had happened. Guilt both from his admittedly unfair judgements and simple inability to do better than he had beset him with increasing regularity. While he had no intention of abandoning the group before they reached Mistral, the old hunter still far from recovered enough to fight for more than a handful of seconds before collapsing, it still left Jaune wishing he could leave.

Fortunately, his salvation had arrived in a rather odd manner 3 days after he had first regained consciousness. When one of the members of the caravan, a woman in her mid-thirties, had offered to mend his ruined hoodie, to which Jaune had automatically replied that he could do it himself, if she wouldn't mind lending him a needle, along with a bit of cloth and thread. The woman had complied eventually, with a not so subtle undertone of an adult humoring a child, giving Jaune the requested items. Distracted by the odd sense of relief being treated like a normal child gave him, Jaune inadvertently went all out while repairing his hoodie. His pointlessly high sewing ability mixed with a hunter's superhuman mental processing and movement speed allowed him to repair the ruined article of clothing in barely 10 minutes. It was only afterwards, when Jaune was looking over his work in satisfaction that he noticed the entirety of the caravan staring at him like he'd grown a second head.

The revelation of his pointlessly high domestic prowess had quickly changed the atmosphere of the camp towards him during breaks. Seeing an opportunity by the slight shift in the way they looked at him after the sewing incident, Jaune had proceeded to embark on what could only be called a Crusade by an S-class househusband in the making. From taking over cooking during breaks to helping mend clothes to teaching more effective methods of cleaning clothes with minimal wear, Jaune had quickly succeeded in changing the groups attitude towards him to something he found more comfortable. While he was somewhat subconscious of the fact that his prowess as a homemaker was apparently so incompatible with the image of a hero that the former residents of Kuroyuri seemed incapable of completely consoling the two, he was largely glad they'd started to treat him more like a person and less like some sort of superior entity. While most of them still held some level of respect or minor reverence for him it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been.

Jaune pointedly ignored the fact that his little crusade has temporarily made almost all the women in the group lose all confidence in regards to their domestic capabilities. He also even more pointedly ignored that fact that after recovering from their depression, the female camp had grown almost pointlessly competitive. When said competitiveness had revealed a gradual improvement in the collective cooking ability of the female camp, Jaune had been surprised for a while before remembering yet again how unnaturally horrible everyone else in his family aside from his father was at cooking. Putting more effort into cooking something was supposed to make it tastier, not more toxic and the fact that he'd been expecting the latter from experience made Jaune want to cry.

Despite the surprisingly nostalgic and comforting feeling Jaune found in doing various domestic tasks for the first time since he'd left home (where they had been a constant) Jaune didn't neglect training in whatever manner he could during the trip, scarce encounters with Grimm on the road not nearly enough to count as satisfactory progress. With his only other option being to try and figure out what was up with Crocea Mors (which had reverted to an appearance like when he'd first gotten it, bereft of the splendor it had held the night before the attack on Kuroyuri) and he expected it was going to require a long time to infuse enough aura into it before he could start answering that question, training (even ineffectual training) was simply the best option he had at the moment.

* * *

Jaune hummed idly as he finished his workout for the evening, his body burning with a comfortable fatigue. While it might seem a bit reckless tiring himself out when he was the only dependable combatant within the group, they were only a few days from Mistral and his semblance's ability to null fatigue for health damage gave him a suitable safe margin regarding stamina, even if it wasn't as extensive as it appeared at first glance. A bit of testing in the form of extreme exercise a few days after he'd reawaken had revealed something previously unnoticed in Kuroyuri. While the initial health cost for mitigating excessive strain on his muscles was fairly low, it seemed to start to escalate fairly quickly if he relied on it too much without resting. Pushing himself to use his maximum speed and strength for long periods of time past where his endurance could take him quickly reached the point where it was draining close to 40 points of health a second.

While he wouldn't call it being lucky, the close quarters combat within Kuroyuri had actually been such that it wasn't as exhausting as it could have been, although not for reasons Jaune could be proud of. While he had indeed been going all out, the truth was that fighting at his best didn't mean he was using his max speed and strength all the time, in fact it was rare for him to find a chance to use his full speed. Since Jaune wasn't exactly running in a straight line during combat his highest attainable speed typically didn't prove useful in a fight. Constant changes in direction and elevation meant he could only use what speed he could gather in what often amounted to a split second of acceleration, rather than the second or two of continuous movement it would take to go as fast as he could. This meant that he hadn't been going as fast as he technically could because he wasn't capable of properly utilizing his speed.

Fortunately for him, the old huntsman had been willing to assist him in regards to this, just so long as Jaune in turn lent a hand with the huntsman's training of Ren and Nora. While Jaune knew training was an ineffective method for him in regards to solid progress, it was still possible to lay down a blueprint, so to speak, of techniques and methods he could work on properly once something was trying to kill him. While he was a bit iffy in regards to training around others his age, considering his previous experience with it, it ended up being rather nice and had inadvertently revealed the answer to a question that had been bugging Jaune for quite some time.

* * *

-earlier-

Collapsed on the ground and panting, a certain 10-year-old struggled to catch his breath "Why *pant* am I the only…. One…. struggling this much" Ren managed between his labored breathing as Nora hurried over to help him up.

 **«Ren Lie lv 2»**

 **«Nora Valkyrie lv 7»**

"Dunno" Jaune Arc replied, dashing from side to side over a 6 meter stretch repeatedly with a grimace on his face "you should be stronger, considering how long you've had your aura, but Nora just had hers unlocked and she's already got you completely overwhelmed on that front." He continued still trying, and unsurprisingly failing, to master (or at least get the level 1 skill for) a specific technique the old huntsman Kiero had explained to him.

"Other way around kid" said old huntsman refuted "it's no surprise the girl has got him completely beaten in physical strength." The huntsman paused momentarily "what is surprising on the other hand is how you haven't made the slightest bit of progress at learning the technique I'm wasting my time trying to teach you."

Jaune snorted, turning to look at the old huntsman for a moment.

 **«Kiero Lie lv?»**

"It's plenty surprising that the girl's stronger than someone who has apparently had aura for years, and I told you this would happen the moment I agreed to train with you. I don't learn well outside of live combat, which is why it would be better if you just explain the technical aspects of how the hell you do this and leave me to do the rest on my own later" Jaune shot back "but since you don't believe me about the second thing, please explain how exactly the first makes any sense whatsoever."

"Yeah…" Ren began with a bit of relief, having been too nervous to broach the topic on his own "I thought I'd already gotten better from my sickness, so why am I so behind."

With a sigh the old man shifted his eyes to his great-grandson and replied "well you're so behind blondie here because he's a freak of nature that by all rights should not exist…" began dryly as Jaune huffed in exasperation "and you can't keep up with miss Valkyrie here because you had the misfortune of growing up with an unlocked aura"

"ha?" Jaune inquired dumbly "but aura doesn't hamper muscle growth, in fact, it accelerates it and slows down atrophy." Jaune argued.

"Oh sorry, I didn't realize you were the doctor here" the huntsman shot back before continuing his explanation unprompted "The body only builds muscle in response to continued use, with the lifestyle of a normal kid, having aura means the body doesn't develop as much muscle because it doesn't need it. No amount of aura mastery can fully compensate for physical fitness"

Ren frowned "But that doesn't make sense, no matter how much people work out and exercise, if they don't have aura they don't even come close to how fast people like you and Mr. Jaune can move." He state, eliciting a hesitant nod from Nora, as she helped him into a sitting position.

As the boy finished his question Jaune couldn't help but twitch slightly. It was weird having a kid the same age as him call him Mr. so respectfully. Jaune was about to ask Ren (again) to call him Jaune but the old huntsman started speaking first.

"True, but let me ask you this Ren: How much to you think aura multiplies a person's physical abilities?"

The boy blink in surprise before responding "a few dozen times over?"

"Nope" the huntsman shook his head "In my prime my aura increased my physical abilities about 5 or 6-fold. The very best of huntsmen can typically increase their physical strength about 10-fold or so. From what I can tell, blondie over can enhance himself to about 2 and a half times his normal strength." the hunter continued "and yet huntsman routinely move dozens of times faster than normal people, any idea why?"

"Aura lets muscles develop to be stronger and more efficient than normal?" Jaune offered uncertainty.

The old huntsman moved his hand in a wishy-washy manner "to some extent," he paused momentarily before, seeing they had no answer, answering the question for them "the main reason is that it lets people use strength they technically have without it but can't access. As you saw when I unlocked miss Valkyries' aura earlier, simply unlocking a person's aura seemingly enhances their strength to a level much greater than what they had without it, creating the illusion of aura boosting strength dozens of times over. The reality is that, with the support of aura, it is no longer necessary for the body to limit the output of a person's muscles to a level that won't tear them to shreds."

The old huntsman paused momentarily, taking a drink from a small flask and clearing his throat before continuing.

"While it isn't to the level of instantly doubling a person's strength when they initially unlock their aura, it is still a very significant boost. The longer a person trains and works with Aura after unlocking it the stronger a person's muscles become at the cost of becoming more and more reliant upon aura to function properly." The huntsman tapped his chest just over his heart "While the loss of aura flow near my heart technically drops its maximum functional output to about of sixth of what it was, the truth is it can barely function at an 80th of the level it could when I was in my prime without my heart literally tearing itself apart from the strain, after a few fleeting moments of operation."

Jaune nodded his head slightly in understanding "I see, so in Ren's case, his muscles have been operating under much less strain the Nora's, meaning the actual strength of Ren's muscles is much lower than It appears."

The huntsman nodded "take away his aura and Ren's about as strong as a 4-year-old physically." He continued as Ren slumped in slight dejection "but in this case that's actually sort of a good thing, all considered" he mumbled as Ren looked up in confusion.

"Let me guess, your families style requires a very specific body type and any significant muscular development would probably just make acquiring said body type more difficult" Jaune inquired.

"You can figure that out in an instant but you can't learn a single technique in two days" the old huntsman drawled, watching Jaune continue dashing from side to side "I told you, you need to use the aura to oppose your current momentum and use it to rebound yourself in another, it's not that difficult"

"and I told you, I'm not wired that way, if there's no actual threat, the best I can do is get the theoretical aspect down and maybe…" Jaune cut himself off abruptly as he realized with a start that he was about to die.

While most people would have locked up under such a realization Jaune Arc simply acted, instinctively knowing he couldn't conventionally change his current course fast enough to dodge whatever was trying to kill him and reacting accordingly. His foot hit the ground as he pushed back against his current momentum, typically trying to stop from near full speed would require several footfalls to decelerate without simply tumbling over, but he had no time for that. In the millisecond before his momentum would force him to tumble forward despite his planted foot, he expelled a pulse of aura out of his foot, the image of him bouncing off a firm elastic surface forming in his mind before, in defiance of inertia, he kicked off in the completely opposite direction of his initial motion only losing a small amount of speed despite the impossibly sharp change in direction.

His eyes focused on the blade that passed through the location his momentum should have left him through before he found himself freezing in surprise when he saw the blade. The sheathed blade that probably wouldn't have even done enough damage to drop his health.

"There's no way almost dying can…" the person holding the blade had been declaring before trailing off in surprise, seeming to realize he had not, in fact, hit Jaune firmly on the head. "…help you learn?" the old huntsman continued, all certainty draining out of tone "wait really?" he asked in disbelief, shaking his head.

"You just tried to kill me." Jaune shot out breathlessly.

The old hunter recovered after a moment and snorted "No, I just made you think I was trying to kill you. Put the right pressure in the right way and there's no way you can tell the difference." He paused "Even if you apparently really are hardwired in such a stupid manner, if you think it's dangerous, it might as well be. What? Do you think life's some kind of video game where it only applies in real situations?"

Ignoring how ironic the old huntsman's last question was, Jaune huffed and shot back "aren't you supposed to be unable to move quickly without half killing yourself?"

"If I use my aura to preemptively gather enough oxygen in my bloodstream for a bit, I can move for a half a second or so without issue. Why'd you think I was talking so much? Gave me an excuse to breathe in a lot of air. Not all of us are in love with the sound of our own voices blondie."

Jaune sighed "didn't you say you owed me a debt of gratitude? Cause last I checked gratitude does not include being an ass at every possible second?"

The old huntsman snorted. "If you want me to pay off the rest of my debt in that manner, then be my guest, cause between that and the technique you've finally learned it would leave us about even."

"Is it really that much of a thing for you to talk in a friendly manner? Or is your gratitude in a much sparser quantity then you initially hyped it up to be?" Jaune shot back dryly.

"Neither" The old huntsman replied with amusement "I just think me teaching some 'random' kid one of the Lie clan's secret techniques counts as a pretty significant chunk of that gratitude. Congratulations blondie, you are now the first user of the flash step outside of the Lie clan in just over 300 years, even if you suck at it right now." Turning away from Jaune, the old Lie addressed the clearing's other two occupants "Alright kiddos, that's enough for now, we'll be setting off again soon and I don't want you two pushing yourself all that hard just yet" he declared, directing both Ren and Nora out of the clearing.

"ha?" Jaune let out dumbly even as clearings occupants vanished before turning his attention to a new pair of popups in front of his face.

* * *

 **Unique tier skill** **«** **Flash step** **»** **has been acquired! Skill Flash step is now level 1!**

* * *

 **Flash step lv 1 (Unique): A movement technique passed down through a family of Shinobi turned huntsmen. This skill uses a combination of body manipulation and aura expulsion to allow the user to negate the typical effects of inertia and accelerate at an extremely rapid pace at the cost of a certain amount of aura. At its current level it is only possible to roughly invert momentum, but higher levels allow for sharp turning without losing speed as the user apparently ignores inertia. While this skill does not actually allow the user to move any faster than their normal limit, it does facilitate combat at the user's full speed. This skill interacts uniquely with tier ranking, not gaining any bonus in effect from higher tiers and instead having its maximum level restricted by tier rank. At current tier, maximum mastery value is capped at level 90. Skill is very difficult to master and levels at a very slow pace.**

* * *

"…." Jaune closed his menu after a moment "well shit." The boy mumbled to himself before moving to return to the Caravan.

* * *

Jaune had eventually learned that the flash step technique was not something people would typically be capable of learning in a few days of practice. As a matter of fact, most people couldn't even manage a singular success with it until they'd had months of training, let alone one in what they believe to be a live combat situation. Despite practicing it almost nonstop since he'd learned it the skill was still at level one, and while it would level faster during combat, it was obviously going to take a while to get to a decent level of proficiency with it.

In regards to how most hunters dealt with the issue of inertia, Jaune had been given a rather unexpected answer of "they either don't or they do so stupidly" by the old huntsman before the old man had descended into mumbles that Jaune only heard the tail end of "…by gun's the recoil my ass". In truth, the technique Jaune had been taught was one even most A-rank hunters would covet. The old huntsman had expected Jaune to fail at learning it and give up quickly, intending to give him some other technique rather that what was an extremely valuable family secret.

Upon learning this, Jaune had promptly sworn upon his family name (outside the presence of all save the old hunter) not to spread it in the future. The rest of the week passed by in a blur, as Jaune found himself liking the experience of teaching, seeing as he, for obvious reasons, ended up taking the primary role in regards to hands on teaching with Ren and Nora. After they got over their initial bit of hero worship regarding him, Jaune ended up finding great solace in interacting with those his age normally, after they had finished training for the day, and had quickly come to consider the two friends.

Unfortunately, Jaune knew it couldn't last for much longer, as they neared Mistral and the amount of time before he'd have to return to being alone grew more and more sparse.

* * *

"That's enough" Jaune called, promptly causing Ren and Nora to collapse simultaneously onto the ground, panting "you've made a lot of progress over the last week and a half" Jaune said with a slight smile.

Nora smiled at that, seeming to recover a bit of her energy "Thanks Jaune! It's difficult but I can literally feel myself getting stronger every day" she chirped, her voice displaying the cheerful attitude that had been ever so slowly superseding her once slightly timid tone. After a few more moments the girl managed to gather enough energy to stand, stretching as she did so.

"Yeah" Ren managed unsteadily, still panting "if you've been training like this for 5 years, it's no wonder you're so crazy strong already" he managed.

Jaune smiled in response, having deliberately glossed over the fact that the vast majority of his progress had actually occurred over barely 6 months of time, deciding that telling a little white lie would be better than demoralizing his short-term students. "You're going to have it rough for a while Ren, it's probably going to take you at least a year to completely catch up to where you should be for your age and that's assuming you work your ass off." Jaune reminded him.

The boy let out a heavy sigh "I know, a year of this is going to be rough."

"A year?" Jaune asked, raising his eyebrow "try a lifetime, or at least a few decades."

Ren looked horrified momentarily "I thought you just said I'd be able to catch up in a year?"

"Catch up to average level, which is nowhere near enough of an achievement to rest on your laurels." Jaune deadpanned "for hunters, above average Life expectancy and living quality is basically directly tied to being above average in combat. B and A rank huntsman get loads more freedom in regards to how they live, mostly because the kingdoms know trying to strong arm powerful hunters into things they don't want to do will only cause trouble later. An A-rank hunter can basically retire at any time, so long as they agree to go back on duty during any major crisis, while a D-rank would probably need to spend decades hunting to get the same agreement. That's ignoring how less likely an A-rank is to die than a D-rank."

Ren let out a groan "Oh midday naps, I'm sorry I ever took you for granted"

Jaune and Nora simply exchanged slightly amused looks, before the latter move to help the still prone boy to his feet. As Jaune's temporary students began talking with each other, a slightly sad expression overtook Jaune's face. They were barely 3 hours of travel away from Mistral's gates and this was the last time the small caravan would be camping out before they reached the city. The number of Grimm had fell to a level where Jaune's presence was no longer necessary for the caravan and Jaune could freely take off on his own without having to worry about them. Having resigned himself to depart from the group before they drew any closer to the city, this had been his last short stretch of time with the only friends he'd had since he'd left home (although even there he hadn't had many).

"Is something the matter oh fearless teacher?" Nora asked, drawing Jaune's attention to her and Ren, both of whom were looking at him in slight concern.

Jaune sighed, he'd never directly brought up the fact that he'd be leaving before they'd reached Mistrals gates to them, and from how they were acting he realized both Ren and Nora might not be aware of the fact. Seeing no reason to hide this, Jaune started to explain "we're nearing Mistral at this point…" he paused "…so it's about time for me to take my leave."

Ren and Nora both froze stock still, staring at him in uncomprehending disbelief.

"Why?" Nora blurted in horrified disbelief "Even if you're an orphan can't Ren and his family just take care of you too?" she babbled.

"I'm not an orphan" Jaune replied quietly "I haven't told anyone my last name for certain reasons, but my direct family is still alive." He admitted, feeling a bit guilty at the image him concealing his last name seemed to have painted.

Ren, seemingly recovering from his shock, frowned before asking "They why are you here by yourself? No matter how strong you are, you've said it yourself, you're 10, just like us." he paused for a moment "Why aren't your parents here with you? Did you run away after being abused or something?" he asked in genuine concern.

Jaune sighed heavily before letting out a short bitter laughed "Yes I ran away, but not because I wasn't being treated well." Jaune wet his lips "It's like this, you have something you love, something you'd do anything to protect and take care of, even if that anything meant doing something that hurt you. Even if that anything meant leaving that thing you love so much behind and possibly never seeing it again." Jaune let out another bitter snort "I didn't become strong just because I could, I became strong because if I didn't I would lose everything, and I keep at it because if I don't grow even stronger I will still lose everything."

"Jaune…" Nora mumbled, as both her and Ren looked at him in shock.

"You two called me a hero once… but right now… the only thing heroic about me is the challenge in front of me." Jaune admittedly tiredly "I'm sorry, I'd like to stay with you all longer, but I've indulged myself enough as it is." Ren and Nora spent a moment trying to find something to say before Jaune continued again "So get stronger, you two, get stronger and then maybe we can meet again one day. So, that maybe, we can be friends for a period of time longer than a few weeks before parting." Jaune sighed.

"You shouldn't have to do this…" Ren murmured "you're still a child, just like we are."

"A child?" Jaune asked, a sad expression on his face even as he turned to leave "I've scarcely felt like one, recently. In fact, in a lot of way, I feel like I haven't been a child since I was 9 years old." Jaune sighed again before managing a smile as he looked back at Ren and Nora "Thank you, you two, the time I've spent with you two has been some of the best since I left home, and it really means a lot to me being able to have friends like you, even if only for a short time…" He paused, the last words he wanted to say sticking in his throat for a moment "…goodbye." He managed, turning back and making to leave the clearing.

"…No"

Jaune paused, looking back at Nora who stood with her head down, her hair concealing her expression from him.

Jaune sighed "I know it sucks, this is hard for me too but-"

"Not goodbye." Nora declared firmly before looking up at him fiercely "See you later" she corrected Jaune, as he blinked in surprise. "It's not a final goodbye, we will meet again." She paused "and next time, we'll be strong enough so that you won't have to fight on your own. We'll be strong enough that you won't need to leave us behind when something dangerous is happening." She smiled fearlessly, shooting a glance at Ren, smiling right alongside her, before finishing "and we'll be strong enough to break your legs if you try and leave us behind again, Jauney."

Jaune found himself completely speechless, something stinging in the corner of his eyes as the burden he'd been carrying since the day he'd received his oracle grew lighter, and all his worries and insecurities faded for a few short seconds. Unwilling to clamp down on his emotions with gamer's mind, Jaune struggled not to cry as a smile, as sad as it was happy, grew on his face. "Beacon." He managed "If everything goes well and I succeed, I'm going to try and attend Beacon academy with the rest of our age group." Still pushing back his tears Jaune continued "I'll see you then… and Ren?" the other boy titled his head in response "When the time comes, remind me to never let Nora and my eldest sister meet, lest I really do wind up with broken legs" Jaune laughed, genuinely this time.

"If I feel like it," Ren replied with a sad smile "and you don't deserve it at the time." he joked

Jaune laughed again, nodding "Fair enough." He straightened up, looking at his two friends "Then let me do this correctly this time. See you later Nora. See you later Ren. Until we meet again."

"Later Jauney" Nora replied, tears pooling in the corner of her eyes.

"See you at Beacon, Jaune" Ren answered, the corner of his eyes visibly red as he wrapped Nora in a one-armed hug as they watched him go.

As Jaune left, waving goodbye to his friends and the other members of the caravan, his heart felt just a little lighter, genuinely so, not a false ease caused by distraction or forced manipulation of his own emotions. Looking at the task that stood before him, impending and overwhelming as it was, the future still felt just a little bit brighter than it had mere moments ago. Determination, for once not tainted by helpless desperation, filled Jaune, even as he set off towards Mistral, preparing himself to submerge himself in the underbelly of society, to scour through humanities darkness so that he may find a way towards a brighter future.

Slipping through the trees, alone once more, Jaune found himself smiling slightly "I'll see you later… my friends."

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Down the Rabbit Hole: End**

* * *

 **I kept my Author's note much shorter than usual that last time so people would** **actually read it** **(lol) so now I'm going to make up for it because I have an obsession with overexplaining things.**

 **Flash step: This is a technique Jaune is going to struggle to master for a long ass time, but it will be well worth it when he does get it up to a useable level. Currently it's nothing more than the equivalent of a rough aura springboard switching his direction, but at higher levels he'd literally be able to run through a full-sized Maze at full speed without ever slowing down in the slightest, regardless of however many sharp turns he'd have to take. This type of skill is invaluable to Jaune seeing as it is incredibly potent in one vs many combat situations, and when you're an army of one… you tend to be outnumbered more often than not.**

 **Regarding the title system: I said Jaune's semblance can't do things unless they are technically possible for other people, and I meant that. While the nature of the title system might seem to contradict this, seeing as you would think being referred to by a certain title wouldn't increase other people's abilities, but that's just the thing: it does. While Jaune's semblance lets him cheat a little bit by making it easier to acquire titles, other people are fully capable of receiving the effects of a title. In my version of Remnant, titles for most people act in a manner ranging from a strong self-suggestion to something like a self-imposed Geas.**

 **The former of the two is even present on earth and is proven to have actual effects on people's performances and behaviors, like how wearing red typically makes people more confident and aggressive. Throw aura into the mix and it becomes possible for people to genuinely become stronger or better at something based on their mental state. Basically, mind/soul-magic bullshit over matter.**

 **The latter of the two, Geas (basically a restriction or vow based on certain conditions often used in relation to a spell of some sort) functions on remnant because it is a world with both aura based soul-magic and, in extremely rare cases, actual non-aura related magic. Functionally, it's setting a restriction on an ability making it unusable until certain conditions are met in exchange for increasing the potency of said ability when it does activate. This type of title is typically formed inadvertently little by little over the course continuous exposure to a certain challenge or type of opponent. Someone with a title that, for example, made them stronger when fighting Goliaths would have, over the course of dozens of fights, inadvertently cultivated a Geas that grants them more strength when the condition -that they are fighting Goliaths- is met, regardless of their mental state at the time.**

 **Titles can be both positive and negative in nature, or even a mixture of the two. For example, someone with a title relating to them being a failure or simply incompetent would receive growth maluses from the title, and someone with a title like berserker would suffer debuffs towards mental attributes in exchange for boosted physical prowess. Titles can roughly (very roughly) be considered an inversion of traits: While traits are a person's innate nature, titles are a result of a person's experiences.**

 **Switching topics, people have noted how Jaune's thinking is often uselessly introspective and sometimes incorrect, this is true but it is also mostly done deliberately. For all that Jaune's Intelligence and Wisdom attributes are on par with most aura users nearing or into their 20's he is also still a 10-year-old that has gone from having slightly above average intelligence for his age to being an affront to bell curves everywhere in 6 months. He just doesn't have the experience that typically comes with growing up into adulthood and is, at the moment, rather unbalanced because of it. Simply put, it doesn't matter how high the memory and processing power of a computer is if you only have 2-bit games installed on it. Jaune will jump to some conclusions, some of which end up being correct and others which are flat-out wrong. Basically, Jaune is an unreliable narrator and considering even in third person my writing is often merely telling you Jaune's opinion or view on something there are going to be times when a description of something seems narrow minded or biased, because it will be. While Jaune is a fundamentally good kid, bias can just as easily be rooted in genuine ignorance as it can be in hatred.**

 **As for my tendency to make things overly dramatic and showy at points? Well, I typically listen to music as I write and at the moment that means I put on a random 2 hour YouTube playlist with variations on the title '2 hours of epic music' while writing. With a uselessly epic background for my writing I realize that I get a bit hammy at points, something that I may eventually go back and fix but for now am just going to accept as a necessary evil of my writing process (unless it bothers people that much) and focus on getting chapters out at reasonable paces.**

 **Speaking of reasonable paces, those of you who have read my other stories might be wondering why I've gotten more than 40k worth of writing out in around a month for this story, even though it took me nearly a year to do the same for my other stories. In all honesty, I suck at consistency in regards to writing. Depending on my mood I can write out 5k or more words in a single day or stare at a word document for 2 hours and barely manage 5 sentences. This is also the reason why I have decided not to give concrete promises for when another chapter in a story will come out, it is simply not something I trust myself to be able to keep; my attempts to so and failure to deliver on some of my earlier stories when I first started being something I still feel somewhat guilty about.**

 **There is also the fact that I haven't settled into any specific style as a writer in a lot of ways. I range from writing more in the line with translated Japanese light novels to more western style writing to mixtures of the two with other elements thrown in. This might just be me being pessimistic in some sense, but I was -and still am- surprised at how popular my stories are despite how amateurish my writing often feels to me. I have several stories that are on the first page for favorites in their sections but when I look at and read the stories just a few spaces up from mine I often end up wondering how exactly my stories are considered to be at a relatively similar level. I personally feel I still have a lot to work on as a writer and while I rarely respond to comments directly, I do read them all and attempt to use them (even those with less than friendly undertones) to better myself as a writer.**

 **Getting back on topic, I'm just going to preemptively say that Jaune realizing the existence of Ozpin and Salem's little 'game' was only possible because of a combination of him noticing something off in Kuroyuri, his oracle, and his high mental attributes combined with a child's inherently greater willingness to accept things adults would usually discard as delusions or impossibilities. While it won't really change his current course of action, it does represent the beginning of Jaune's steady transition from 'piece' to 'player' in regards to how both Ozpin and Salem view him, although both are either unware of his existence (Salem) or only view him as the runaway child of an ally (Ozpin) at this point in time.**

 **In regards to Ren and Nora, their personalities differed from Canon for multiple reasons, although they will be much closer to their Canon personalities by the time they enter beacon. Nora's energetic and bubbly personality isn't present because I don't think that would be how she acted directly after the events of Kuroyuri (even my modified version) and is instead something that steadily came out after meeting Ren. While it is her 'true' personality, her time as an orphan and the tragedy of Kuroyuri's fate prevented it from surfacing for a large amount of time. Even with Jaune's interference Kuroyuri's destruction was still a very tragic and traumatizing event and thus I see the current Nora as being rather nervous and uncertain in regards to her relationships with others, instead of the confident happy go lucky attitude she gains by the Canon Era.**

 **Ren, without the trauma of losing his whole family or the (self-imposed) responsibility of looking after Nora by himself, is a bit more energetic. While he is still a calm person by nature, him still having his family makes him more prone to display and act upon emotional impulses. While the events of Kuroyuri will still weigh on his mind somewhat, it isn't to the extent of being a long lasting severe trauma. If this story makes it far enough to reach Canon Era, Ren will still be largely similar to his Canon self, personality wise, if a bit more prone to showing emotion and occasionally displaying slightly irresponsible actions inherent to being a teenager. Regarding his apparent bad health as a young child, this is something I added in thinking of his health oriented mindset (present in canon and occasionally overkilled in fanon) and how it might have come about. His currently lower than average physical ability means he'll need to train more than Nora, something that will eventually lead to his love of naps and sleep in general.**

 **As to their attitude towards Jaune: Remember that to them he is a kid around the same age as them that was moving around mowing down creatures of darkness at speeds they couldn't follow, who apparently shrugged off a blow that punted him through a building before coming back and one-shoting a Grimm that looked like an honest to god horseman of the apocalypse with an incredibly flashy technique that would look nothing less than a hero's special move to any 10-year-old. While in reality that blow nearly killed him, the Grimm had been immobilized by Ren's great grandfather, and Jaune isn't even close to being able to use that attack consistently or on demand most of this wasn't evident.**

 **For all that Jaune was incredibly fortunate and won more by sheer coincidence than anything else, it still looked (and, to an extent, genuinely was) fucking epic to the untrained observer (as in, to everyone present save Ren's then barely conscious great-grandfather). Add the fact that Jaune's actual combat prowess is flat-out monstrous for his age and the only reason they don't end up treating him with something at the level of flat-out hero worship is because for all his mental and physical prowess Jaune still acts mostly like a normal 10-year-old (when he's not being world's youngest single househusband), at least around others his age. Even with the fact that Ren's great grandfather is much faster when he does move, it's not like they can tell the difference considering they can't follow either of the two's movements.**

 **As for the events of Kuroyuri causing a stir, that is true, to an extent. The vast majority of the settlement's residents did die in the attack, and those that survived have scattered. With the CCT reception down, no one being dumb enough to start recording a video in the middle of a massive Grimm attack, the fact that Ren's parents quickly took the then unconscious Jaune under their care, and that everyone was basically in a rush to pack up and leave what had essentially become a massive graveyard rather than a settlement; Jaune's exact description remained largely unclear to most after the attack. While a rumor would certainly spread, it -like all rumors- would quickly grow distorted with only a sparse few similarities to the true story. Who knows? As Jaune's description grows steadily further from reality (who would believe a child pulled off what he did after all) the description of the one who saved Kuroyuri's remaining residents might end up matching that of another mysterious hero… like say, a certain unnamed Legendary Knight-sama who saved a boat from an immense horde of flying Grimm not too long ago, if you know what I'm saying? *wink wink* *nudge nudge***

 **Poor Jaune… I know I'm the one doing this to him, but really… Cursed with Chuuni indeed.**

 **Someone asked how the Nuckelavee was only a C-rank Grimm when I said Ancient Nevermores were high C-rank approaching low B-rank earlier, and while this might seem like a bit of an oversight on my part, it was done deliberately. In my opinion, Grimm in Canon usually didn't scale very well in strength, meaning that they went from nothing a veteran huntsman couldn't kill to 'Rawr! I'm a motherfucking dragon, ima step on an entire goddamn kingdom' a bit too fast, even if said dragon did get wrecked by the derpiest eye bullshit since the Sharingan directly after it appeared (XD).**

 **In my rendition of Remnant, Grimm don't really have a growth limit, even if some species grow a lot slower with continuously diminishing returns as they grow more powerful. For example, a 20,000-year-old Beowolf (typically an E-rank Grimm) would be fully capable of matching an S-rank huntsman in combat, despite being part of a species falling under the umbrella of low-class Grimm. This means that it is necessary for more specific descriptors for the age of a Grimm rather than in Canon, where it (unless I'm mistaken) simply goes from baby to normal to ancient with no steps in between. Nevermores specifically go from fledgling (low E-rank) to standard (mid to high E-rank) to seasoned (low to high D-rank) to Elder (low to mid C-rank) to Ancient (high C to low B-rank). While Nevermores who grow strong enough to exceed low B-rank are still classified as Ancient, they are extremely uncommon leading to most considering low B-rank as the strongest a Nevermore will be. Team Rwby may have fought an Ancient Nevermore in Canon but here they (presuming the events play out roughly the same) will fight a somewhat weak Elder Nevermore.**

 **Also, I now want to face Jaune off against a level 999 Beowolf for the sheer degree of lolwtf it would cause. Maybe as a post main questline hidden boss? Lol, maybe have him be primarily bipedal and call him Beowulf the Beowolf?... now for some reason I'm imaging it having gained the ability to speak human language at some point and learned how to wield a sword while talking like a (poorly impersonated) samurai for some reason (degozaru). I really do question my own sanity at points like these lol.**

 **Anyway, seeing as I am indeed changing things up, I was considering sometimes including a bestiary of sorts at the end of some of my chapters, detailing the traits and classifications of various species of Grimm as a sort of reader optional world building/ poorly disguised info dump for those who are interested. I decided to go ahead and include a sample of what it would typically look like below. It's fairly easy to put together so it shouldn't slow down new chapters, but depending on the feedback I get it'll either become a fairly common thing or something that appears only sparsely. Here's the entry for everyone's favorite cannon fodder: Beowolves**

* * *

 _Professor Peter Port's Peerless Pamphlet Pertaining to the Proper Pursuit and Persecution of Prey._

 _Section 1: Low-class Grimm_

 _Entry # 001: The Beowolf_

 _Author's note: As the weakest species of Grimm common across all inhabited areas, many new hunters-in-training make the mistake of disregarding the humble Beowolf as no threat. I myself, back in my younger days of youthful ignorance, made the same mistake: deciding it was unnecessary to bring along my weapon during a walk in the woods after hearing that only a sparse few Beowolves populated it. This, of course, led to a fierce life or death battle as I valiantly fought back an entire pack of Beowolves unarmed, risking life and limb before, at the tender age of 11, I succeeded in fending off the entire pack alone by virtue of my strength, skill, and indominable spirit! Ha! Ha! Of course, that, is a story for another time._

 _Description: Ranging from the size of a child just entering their teens upwards to slightly larger than a fully-grown man, the Beowolf holds many similarities with the common wolf. While all Beowolves possess sharp claws and a vicious bite without exception, older members of the species often develop vicious bone spike around their back, joints, and neck. While primarily a quadrupedal species of Grimm, most are capable of fighting to some extent in a bipedal posture, some even adopting this as their primary method of movement even outside of combat. With strong hearing and eyesight, backed by an equally formidable sense of smell, most hunters don't become capable of concealing themselves from Beowolves before they are already strong enough to slaughter them by the dozens, rendering stealth largely unnecessary._

 _Combat Strength: Beowolves largely fall under E-rank category in terms of singular combat ability, with Alpha Beowolves pushing into realms of D-rank combat prowess. While, like all Grimm, they do not technically have a strength limit, a Beowolf exceeding D-rank combat prowess is a sparse exception to the norm. While the individual strength of Beowolves is quite low, their true danger lies in the fact that they are one of the few species of Grimm that work in some form of organized manner more often than not, stemming from their pack instincts. While it isn't uncommon to find a lone Beowolf, the vast majority of them form packs aligned beneath an alpha Beowolf, or otherwise simply the strongest standard Beowolf in the nearby area. If you go out to hunt a lone Beowolf, you best be prepared to face at least a dozen, lest the hunter quickly become the hunted._


	6. Chapter 5: Shadow of Shadows

As he moved calmly through the vibrant and colorful streets of Mistral, Jaune took a moment to acknowledge the fact that breaking into the main city of one of the four kingdoms as an unaccompanied 10-year-old with no identification whatsoever had been so easy for him that it wasn't even worth considering it an accomplishment, especially since even now, nearly 3 months later, he was still completely unnoticed. Of course, considering his «Subversive Arts» skill was now sitting at an impressive level 54 he supposed it was more a matter of him being preposterously good at stealth even by the standards of an elite agent.

For all that Jaune should have been confused or uncertain in regards to the source of his inhuman growth, even with his trait, the reasons behind it had come to him naturally. After the initial overload from his ascendance to a higher tier of aura manipulation had subsided and he no longer felt like his body was surging with an unnatural amount of energy, Jaune found himself innately understanding his semblance a bit more vividly. While most of its functions were pretty cut and dry, the method and specifics of how it functioned were starting to become clear. His gamer semblance appeared to have manifested based around some form of causality manipulation; it's nature appeared to be that of a semblance that interfered with, adjusted, and even outright defied things like fate or the conventional laws of cause and effect, at least in regards to Jaune specifically. If an attack pierced a person's aura and hit them normally they would be injured, in Jaune's case, his semblance would manipulate the outcome, shifting the effect from him being injured to his health dropping.

His insane skill growth rate was yet another result of this manipulation of cause and effect. While most people wouldn't progress linearly, having to practice techniques again and again until they perfected them and then needing to train regularly so their skill wouldn't drop, Jaune only had to reach a certain level of proficiency for a short period of time to maintain a skill at that level. His semblance's skill system worked with an odd logic, simultaneously applying a dual cause-effect relationship for his skill's level and his ability in that skill. Because his ability was equivalent to level 50, the skill's level was 50, because his skill's level was 50, his ability was at least equivalent to the level 50 skill. It had a somewhat horrifying degree of synergy with his «Of a different Breed» trait. While many hunter's might have moments during life or death situations where they momentarily exceed their limits and pull off something normally beyond them, for Jaune, rather than this momentarily heightened skill fading, it would become permanent. Meeting the condition of have ability to a certain degree (even if only for a few moments) he would acquire a skill level equivalent to that degree of ability and hence have ability equivalent to it.

To put it bluntly, Jaune was about as good at something as the best he'd ever been at it, even if that level would have normally been something akin to a 1 in 100000, in-the-zone, miracle. Of course, this only applied if the skill sufficiently passed the threshold of a level. Momentarily getting to the equivalent of a 99% progress rate towards the next level wouldn't stick, he had to reach the next level for the effects to perpetuate. For Jaune, whose go to training situation involved pushing himself to the absolute limit, this ability was outright bullshit.

In regards to his frankly unfeasible growth in physical strength and intelligence, his semblance basically fudged the cause-effect of 'because he was too young, he couldn't yet develop to be this strong' to 'because he was this strong, it must have been possible for him to become as such' it was the same way he acquired points from something like leveling up, rather than a normal person's 'they had grown this much so they've reached this level' Jaune was treated as 'having reached this level he must have grown this much'. Experience was acquired from overturning however much presence or importance an opponent had in the world, from its significance, so to speak. Since he had overturned a creature with a destiny this potent, he grew this much.

It was somewhat ironic that his semblance proved the existence of things like fate and destiny in the form of rather blatantly flicking them off and telling them to go fuck themselves.

It might seem like an outrageously overpowered semblance (and in some ways, it was, technically being an expression of freaking omnipotence, however limited his version was) but by manipulating causality and destiny his semblance simultaneously made him uniquely vulnerable to it. Because of his semblance's function to twist destiny, he was extremely vulnerable to those with a destiny much more significant than his as twisting their destinies even slightly would require vase amounts of power. Destiny in this case didn't mean potential future actions, but rather actions something or someone had already performed. Every single known S-rank hunter was more than 500 years old, and that meant that they had been building up their destiny -perhaps better stated as the 'weight' of their existence- for just as long. This meant that a playful slap on the back from an S-rank hunter that would typically barely even sting might very well be capable of dealing tens of thousands of points of damage to Jaune's health in stark defiance of the degree of the 'attack'. The fact that this also applied to his aura shield was not a comforting thought. His flesh alone, after the depletion of his health, was immune to this weakness.

It fit quite well in regards to video game logic, really, considering how in an RPG a level 90 character shooting you in the foot with an arrow would deal more damage than a level 5 nailing you in the eye with one.

The next most dangerous thing to Jaune in the long run would be other people's titles. Best he could tell he was the only person who (sometimes) had a listed bonus for the benefits his titles provided, other people with titles had some vague (but often potent) benefit from them based on how strongly it was reflected in their existence and how potent said existence was. Bluntly speaking, someone with an assassin title could be capable of performing a surprise attack dealing ungodly amounts of damage to Jaune, in defiance of what their stats might suggest, due the weight of their existence as an assassin.

The only way past this was to build up his own destiny, either by growing stronger, becoming famous, infamous, or even by interfering and interacting with people with strong destinies. Like the title system, this was, contrary to the rest of his semblance's system, extremely vague and annoying. It was like one of those cheesy tropes that gave heroes the ability to somehow cut down the villain in one strike despite said villain being stronger and faster, except in this case the hero (him, hopefully) had a destiny that was probably several dozens of times weaker than the villains did, for now at least.

Of course, there was good news and agonizing news in regards to increasing the strength of his destiny. The good news was that he'd gotten another title, the agonizing news was that he'd gotten another title.

* * *

 **«Legendary Nevermore Knight» (Heroic Alias): You are the Legendary Nevermore Knight, Hero and agent of justice whose name lies shrouded in mystery! As a true hero, you will answer the call to defend the weak and innocent no matter the personal risk, ruling the land and conquering the skies to defeat the forces of darkness!**

 **Due to this title's status as a heroic alias, title development to the point of acquiring its full effects without equipping the title is impossible. Additionally, due to its status as an alter ego, events that are extremely significant to you as «Jaune Arc» rather than as the «Legendary Nevermore Knight» prevent the usage of this title. Title may not be equipped or unequipped unless no one is observing you and you are not in combat. Due to its extremely potent nature, the strain of equipping this title for prolonged periods of time will cause both physical and spiritual fatigue, leading to temporarily decreased levels of aura control, healing rate, aura regeneration, and certain semblance functions. Strain increases at higher Fame levels.**

 **Overall Fame: somewhat famous (76/400)**

 **Mistral: Well-known (44/100 fame)**

 **Vale: sparse rumors (12/100 fame)**

 **Atlas: sparse rumors (7/100 fame)**

 **Vacuo: sparse rumors (13/100 fame)**

 **At your current fame level this skill passively grants a flat bonus of 38 (76 while title is equipped) points to all stats, increases the Charisma modifier by 19% (38% while title is equipped), enhances the effects of all covert skills by 38% (76% while title is equipped) towards actions primarily relating to hiding or concealing the connection between you and your heroic identity and increases quality of all one-liners and cool poses by 38% (78% while title is equipped).**

 **While this title is equipped the weight of your existence is that of «Jaune Arc» and the «Legendary Nevermore Knight» combined rather than only that of «Jaune Arc». The unique skill «Legendary Nevermore Knight» receives an additional 50% effect correction (boosting its potency to that of a god-tier skill) and a 50% boost to proficiency growth rate. All other skills that can be clearly related to the «Legendary Nevermore Knight» (such as «Advanced Sword Mastery») receive a 20% boost to effect correction and proficiency growth rate.**

 **At your current level of spiritual and physical strength, it is possible to cope with the strain of equipping this title at its current fame level for around 30 minutes before beginning to accrue negative effects and endure for roughly 2 hours before title is automatically unequipped (regardless of the circumstance) to prevent spiritual immolation.**

* * *

Pushing down the increasingly strong urge to go find a dark corner to go die in, Jaune once again thanked whatever deities he could think of that the title could not be changed during combat, meaning that he didn't have to equip it permanently to avoid technically having a way out in a battle and hence interfering with his growth rate. Once his alternating session of internal screaming and boundless relief that it wasn't worse passed, Jaune took a moment to lament what had already become his deepest, darkest secret and its increasingly prominent existence in Mistral (and -horrifyingly- the rest of remnant).

His desire to not be revealed as the person who had killed the Nuckelavee in Kuroyuri had technically been fulfilled, there was no known connection between said event and Jaune Arc after all, but it had also technically not been fulfilled. The common story in regards to said incident was that the mysterious individual known as the Legendary Nevermore Knight had appeared when all hope was lost and slew the beast with a single mighty strike before disappearing to wipe out any remaining Grimm in the area. The other groups of survivors from Kuroyuri had barely seen glimpses of Jaune, meaning the vague description of the Legendary Nevermore knight probably fit with what they'd seen, and seeing as the group Jaune had traveled with had agreed with those rumors to conceal his identity, the story had been quickly accepted.

He should be happy there wasn't even a whisper of the name Jaune Arc but it was just so freaking embarrassing. If it wasn't for Gamer's mind his face would have been red for the last 3 months straight. It didn't make any sense; he'd done 2 things any B-rank hunter could've done easily and yet somehow his humiliating alter ego was more famous than most A-rank hunters were! It was horrible and was only getting worse after the CCT had finally been repaired.

Quickly jumping on that line of thought in a futile attempt to escape reality, Jaune focused on what he'd heard as to why the CCT had taken so long to be fixed. While it normally should have been up and running at full capacity nearly 3 weeks before the attack on Kuroyuri, a day before its scheduled restoration to 100% operating efficiency the headmaster of Haven academy had noticed a larger developing issue within the system. According to Headmaster Lionheart's interview on the topic, full activation of the CCT at that time would've caused the whole network to crash for an even longer amount of time. He'd also informed the public that it was only possible for it to be fixed as quickly as it was thanks to the hard work of some renown scientist. While the scientist's full name escaped Jaune at the moment he remembered it being Wat-something-or-other, not that it mattered.

Anyway, the CCT was back online and communication had been fully reestablished throughout Mistral and Jaune was now free to make use of his free (stolen) Wi-Fi to research potential leads regarding his opponents. Or he would be free to use it if he hadn't quickly become aware that doing so would likely bring him nothing but a group of government agents swarming him due to one little detail he hadn't really counted on. The fact that, for all intents and purposes, black dust did not exist. Not a single book, dust store, weapon shop, or anything else save perhaps the Dust net (which he had deliberately refrained from using in this regard) mentioned even a single peep about black dust. The linchpin of his investigation and one of his only leads apparently didn't exist.

Of course, considering the fact that white dust hadn't 'existed' until it and the decades of research on it by all 4 kingdoms was revealed in the middle of the Great war as each kingdom tried to one up the others, Jaune was fairly certain It was both real and classified out the ass. The biggest hint to this was how thorough its nonexistence was, there was no reference to it, even in fiction books or fairy tales, like someone was trying so hard to erase its existence they inadvertently made it downright suspicious for anyone actually looking into it. While he was hesitant to try looking it up on his own scroll, Jaune had already managed to swipe a couple of scrolls from some of Mistrals numerous criminals and was readying himself to use them to browse the web for information relating to Black dust, not that he'd find any there.

His real plan was to observe said stolen scroll and anything observing or tracking it with another stolen scroll. Seeing as research on black dust was likely monitored, and said monitors were likely related to whatever group was researching black dust, all he had to do was track the computers tracking the stolen scroll and then use said group as a method of tracking down the actual researcher dealing with the substance. Knowing the properties, availability, and other information surrounding black dust would drastically increase his ability to hunt down both the potential bomb and the group that intended to create and use it.

This would be a lot harder (even with his level 54 skill) if computer security in the kingdoms didn't suck beyond belief. As the last human war was before computers had become mainstream and humanity's primary opponent -the Grimm- had literally no method of using computers Jaune supposed it was inevitable that computer security was a considerably low priority for the 4 kingdoms. Considering the Grimm had a sentient leader that was probably something Jaune would have to fix in the future, but for now he had to leave it be so he could take advantage of it.

It was slightly awkward for Jaune that the first intelligent and organized opponent he was deliberately facing was the government of Mistral, rather than the numerous low lives and criminal organizations he'd believed would be his opponents on arrival. This awkwardness was probably one of the reasons he'd taken a rather roundabout way to acquire the scrolls he'd need for his little scheme. Rather than buying or stealing one from a store Jaune had spent the last few months beating up thugs and criminals and stealing their scrolls to try and find one advanced enough to perform the necessary roll. His -initially casual- attempted to break down and tinker with one of the numerous cheap scrolls he'd stolen had even netted him a useful skill that had ended up inspiring him to look more into the potential uses for skills he had previously disregarded.

His actions and the ensuing spam of new skills and tier ups had revealed that even once a skill had fusion evolved in one direction, that didn't mean that skill couldn't let other skills evolve using its unevolved variant. Case in point, his sewing skills, already part of a unique skill, had still been able to provide the basis for another skill to evolve with it, cumulating in turning «leather working» into an Expert tier skill call «Light Armor Creation» without effecting his unique skill. Between his crafting shenanigans and his other activities, the end result of the last few weeks was both pleasant and slightly scary: Pleasant because of how useful it was and scary because of how many skills he'd inadvertently cultivated preventing his mother and sisters from destroying their house.

His tinkering had ended up evolving together with a part of the «Indestructible master of housework» skill, namely his familiarity with repairing appliances and furniture to give him the «Advanced Engineering» skill.

* * *

 **Advanced Engineering lv 35 (advanced tier skill):** _The ability to create, repair, improve and repurpose mundane and mechanized items ranging from wagons to computers. This skill also grants the ability to understand structural weaknesses and vulnerabilities._

* * *

Trying to use some leather and cloth he'd purchased to make himself a rough set of armor after finding out armor in his size was custom order only (impossible for a runaway) had led to yet another evolution thanks to his housework abilities, this time relating to sewing, to give him the «Light Armor Creation» skill.

* * *

 **Light Armor creation Lv 42 (Expert tier skill):** _The ability to make protective clothing using lightweight materials with a focus on minimal interference with movement in exchange for lower degrees of protection._

* * *

Performing first aid on the various thugs he'd beaten up had granted him the «First Aid» skill, right up until level 20 when it spontaneously evolved with his cooking ability and «poison resistance» skill to give him a stupidly high level and extremely edgy skill called «Plague doctor»

* * *

 **Plague doctor lv 57 (Expert tier skill):** _Due to your extensive experience with cooking, being forced to eat your mother and sisters' cooking (poison) and your knowledge of first aid you have the ability to identify, resist, cure, and create numerous types of poisons and medicines. You are also capable of treating most types of injuries._

* * *

Upon reaching level 40 his «Observe» skill had used both his basic stealth abilities and 3-dimensional movement skills and evolved into the «Advanced reconnaissance» skill. Which not only stretched the level at which he could view other's statuses but also granted him the ability to look at the quality and effects of their equipment to a certain level whereas before he'd been restricted viewing his own or otherwise unequipped items.

* * *

 **Advanced reconnaissance lv 40 (Expert tier skill):** _Between your extreme skill at concealment and high level of mobility you have become capable of scouting out opponents with incredible efficiency and accuracy, even being capable of determining the potency of their equipment. You can observe the level, status and certain traits of everyone 60 levels or less above your character level. You may view the effects of other individual's equipped gear rare rank and below. Gear you yourself created can be viewed regardless of rank._

* * *

Additionally, his constant stints in the night and otherwise near complete darkness had led to his «Superior eyesight» skill leveling up and then evolving with his «observe» skill into the skill «Preternatural eyesight».

* * *

 **Preternatural eyesight (Passive/Active) lv 38 (Expert tier skill):** _Despite being human your natural eyesight is better than most Faunus, even without Aura infusion. You can see clearly with drastically reduced amounts of light, see significantly beyond the normal light spectrum of what most humans can see and can see with incredible clarity. Passively reduces light required for clear vision by 52%, increases the spectrum of visible light by 52%, and increases the clarity and detail of your eyesight by 52%. When active, allows for vision in complete darkness, increases the spectrum of visible light by 104%, increases the clarity and detail of your eyesight by 104%, and makes it easier to perceive rapid movements. When active Irises glow and aura is expended over time._

* * *

Of all his new skills «Preternatural Eyesight» honestly took the longest to get used to, particularly when it was active. Having recorded a short video of himself to see what it looked like, Jaune was somewhat unnerved by his own appearance. It was unfortunate but the active state of the skill was pretty risky in regards to stealth, seeing as his Irises glowed an unearthly blue that left momentary trails of light if he moved. It was both badass and intimidating as hell in addition to being incredibly potent in combat. Having purchased and modified a mask slightly resembling a Wolf, Jaune had tracked down a rather large gathering of criminals and attacked to test the skill. The active effects of «Preternatural Eyesight» proving to both allowing him to scare the shit out of his opponents and predict their moves with heightened ease. When synced up with his «Flash step» skill (which had finally reached level 2) his evasive abilities had sky rocketed.

Jaune had never been so glad he had a ridiculous quantity of aura, seeing as the skill's active state burned through nearly 25 points of aura per second of activation, around 1500 points a minute, not even counting the considerable cost of using «Flash step» which he pegged at around 100 points per use at the moment. Considering his in-combat regeneration rate of aura was a measly 200 points per minute, perpetual use of either and particularly both skills cut his effective combat time sharply.

While his skill progression was nice, he'd only managed to level up 11 times in the last 3 months despite the countless criminals and gangsters he'd beaten up. Granted most of his opponents hadn't exactly been all that good, but with the number of people he'd beaten up he was somewhat disappointed with the outcome, especially considering most of his experience gains had come from the handful of relatively competent people he'd actually fought. While he'd avoided targeting more prominent street gangs and criminal groups, the ones he had targeted were a lot weaker than he'd thought they'd be. At level 92 he had around 31000 points of aura, meaning using «Preternatural eyesight» alone would burn through his entire reserves in around 20 minutes. It was honestly the first time Jaune had felt he didn't have enough aura, a stark turnaround from his previous state of tremendous excess.

Despite the limits on his newfound abilities and his somewhat disappointing progress at leveling up Jaune was overall quite content with his gains since he'd arrived in mistral, largely due to the equipment he'd made, purchased, and otherwise 'acquired'. While his civilian clothes and hoody apparently didn't count as equipment and hence provide no bonuses, armor actually appeared to have a number of useful benefits, even if it ended up revealing the startling revelation that inanimate objects could apparently have titles. There was also the fact that his equipment display seemed to have quietly updated itself at some point (probably when his aura manipulation had ranked up) and was now displayed in a completely different manner than it previously had.

* * *

 **«Demonic Eyes» Onyx Wolf mask (rare)**

 **Appearance:** Black with red engravings, this mask appears the same as any other festival mask, save for the fact that light doesn't seem to reflect off it as well as it should.

 **Description:** _While at first glance this Wolf mask appears no different from one sold at a mundane stall during a festival, it has been customized and altered heavily, granting it surprisingly high defensive capabilities. Reputably worn by an all-seeing demon, this particular mask is at the center of a growing urban legend in Haven's underworld of an ephemeral demon that appears from nowhere to destroy everything in its path, leavings its victims alive but binding their souls to eternal torment in hell when they die unless they repent and make up for their wrongdoings._

 **Armor type:** _Mask (light armor)_

 _ **Physical defense rating:**_ _D+ (C-)_

 _ **Dust magic defense rating:**_ _D+ (C-)_

 _ **? defense rating:**_ _D+ (C-)_

 _ **Mobility enhancement**_ _: E- (E)_

 **Special traits:**

 **«Demonic eyes» (C):** The urban legend surrounding this mask has enhanced its performance slightly. Increases defensive ability from all type of damage to at least D+ rating. When used in conjunction with the «Preternatural Eyesight» skill all defense ratings increase by 2 degrees and the rank of mobility enhancement is increased by 1 degree. While equipped, slightly decreases aura cost of the «Preternatural Eyes» skill.

 **Mask of the ephemeral demon (D+):** Slightly boosts stealth abilities while worn. Previously defeated opponents have their stats dropped by 10% while fighting this mask's wearer.

* * *

 **«Death March» Onyx Combat boots (rare)**

 **Appearance:** _A pair of black combat boots created with a completely utilitarian design._

 **Description:** _A pair of combat boots created by one that willingly walks with death. Forgoes comfort and aesthetic appeal in favor of maximizing traction and balance._

 **Armor type:** _Boots (light armor)_

 **Physical defense rating:** _D-_

 **Dust magic defense rating:** _D-_

 **? defense rating:** _D-_

 **Mobility enhancement:** _D+ (?)_

 **Special traits**

 **«Death March» (C):** _Negates reduction to movement speed due to injuries during combat, increases degree of mobility enhancement based on how severely injured the wearer is._

* * *

 **«Death's grip» Black leather gauntlets (rare)**

 **Appearance:** _A pair of black gauntlets made of dark cloth and leather that has an appearance slightly similar to Grimm flesh._

 **Description:** _A set of gauntlets created by one that willingly walks hand in hand with death. Forgoes comfort and aesthetic appeal in favor of maximizing grip and protective value._

 **Armor type:** _gloves/ armguards (light armor)_

 **Physical defense rating:** _D+_

 **Dust magic defense rating:** _D+_

 **? defense rating:** _D+_

 **Mobility enhancement:** _E- (C)_

 **Special traits**

 **«Death's grip» (D+):** _In battles where the wearer's life is a stake, drastically increase strength of the wielder's grip on their weapon, making it much harder to disarm them. Mobility enhancement increased to C for movements such as climbing or crawling._

* * *

 **«Death's embrace» black leather body armor (rare)**

 **Appearance:** _While at first glance this dark colored apparel appears little difference from civilian clothes, closer inspection reveals its nature as surprisingly strong combat armor. Covers torso and legs._

 **Description:** _Body armor created by one that flourishes in death's pallid hold. Forgoes comfort and aesthetic appeal in favor of maximizing protective value and minimizing the obstruction of movements._

 **Armor type:** _full body armor (light armor)_

 **Physical defense rating:** _C- (?)_

 **Dust magic defense rating:** _C- (?)_

 **? defense rating:** _C- (?)_

 **Mobility obstruction** _ **:**_ _E+ (E-)_

 **Mobility enhancement** _: E- (C-)_

 **Special traits**

 **«Death's embrace» (C+):** _Enhances defensive properties the closer the wearer is to death. If the wearer is at least severely injured Mobility obstruction is nullified (set to E- rating) and Mobility enhancement is increased to C- rating._

 **Utility (D+):** _Adds 8 inventory quick slots_

* * *

Based on his facemask, Jaune figured there was some truth to the belief that objects eventually gained sentience over the course of time, especially considering he was all but certain Crocea Mors had 'spoken' to him in his fight with the Nuckelavee. His current hunch was that prolonged exposure to aura left an imprint on an object eventually leading to a form of intelligence.

Regarding his hunt for a firearm, while he'd been unable to find something even close to approaching Crocea Mors in regards to quality, he had grabbed a decent enough firearm to act as a stopgap until he found something better or -failing that- otherwise managed to upgrade said firearm enough that it would remain useable against stronger opponents. While the quality of the weapon was mediocre Jaune was quite fond of the type of weapon it was, even if most people might consider it slightly outdated.

A semi-automatic rifle, somewhat closer to an assault rifle than a repeater rifle, but still incapable of automatic firing. To most people, it provided neither the overwhelming torrent of fire of an automatic weapon nor the extreme per shot power of a sniper rifle or a shotgun, but to Jaune it was a perfect middle ground. Conventionally speaking, hunters gravitated towards high power or high rate of fire weapons, largely due to the constraints and restrictions of aura infusion. Users of high powered weapons fire a small number of shots with large amounts of aura infused into each. On the other hand, users of high rate of fire weapons used only a small amount of aura per round but fired off more shots. In his short time shooting, Jaune's personal preference had quickly become a moderate number of shots with a moderate to high amount of aura infused in each shot.

While Jaune's preferred method might seem the most potent at first glance (because it was, damage wise) it is also much more expensive, aura wise. An example scenario of this might follow as such: there are 3 hunters, one with a high power low shot count firing pattern (hunter A), one with a low power high shot count firing pattern (hunter B), and one with a moderate power moderate shot count firing pattern (Hunter C). Over the course of a minute, Hunter A fires 10 times using 100 points of aura per shot, Hunter B fires 100 times using 10 point of aura per shot, and hunter C fires 50 times using 50 points of aura per shot: in this case hunter A and hunter B both use 1000 points of aura but hunter C uses 2500 points of aura.

Seeing as hunters use both melee and ranged combat in conjunction almost without exception, Hunter C's method would generally be considered inefficient considering it more than halves effective combat time and hence hampers both melee damage dealing (which is generally much more significant than ranged damage) and leaves a hunter in a position of possessing a weapon with neither necessary rate of fire for crowd control against hordes of weaker Grimm nor the necessary stopping power to harm heavily armored or simply more durable Grimm without expending vastly greater amounts of aura per shot to make up for the gun's insufficient power.

The reason why Jaune gravitated towards this apparently flawed style was because he was largely exempt from the general weaknesses of this shooting style. His Immense aura reserves meant he could cope with the higher aura cost, his possession of a health bar meant he was less reliant on aura for defense, and his combat style and movement skills gave him an extreme affinity towards fighting large quantities of weaker foes in melee to make up for an ability to do so in ranged combat. There was also the fact that his final opponents would be human, meaning that their defensive abilities would be aura based and could be worn down regardless of stopping power, unlike the pure physical defenses of Grimm. While it was true that hunters cultivated inhumanly durable bodies under the effects of aura, it was only to the level where an A-rank hunter might be immune to bullets and projectiles with a weak or nonexistent aura infusion affect without their aura shield.

* * *

 **Remodeled Militär 913 (Uncommon)**

 **Appearance:** _Roughly 3 feet in length with a grayscale coloration, loaded with a 12-round magazine with a conventional iron sight. This Rifle has a standard nylon harness attached for hands free carrying. Currently equipped with a common silencer._

 **Description:** _A new take on an old firearm. The initial design is that of the_ **Militär 913** _produced by the kingdom of Atlas (then Mantle) shortly before the beginning of the Great war. This version is likely a modern remake, considering the body structure is made of primarily modern era synthetic materials, leaving it a rather uniform gray in coloration but otherwise maintaining the original structure and internal functions of the weapon. Despite its reliability and solid performance, its weapon type's lack of popularity with Aura users left it primarily in the hands of auraless soldiers or otherwise those that had their auras unlocked but possessed no official training in its use._

 **Weapon type:** _Firearm (Semi-automatic Rifle)_

 **Durability:** _B_

 _ **Base attack**_ _: C-_

 _ **Base Armor piercing**_ _: D_

 _ **Base rate of fire**_ _: B-_

 _ **Base effective range:**_ _C_

 _ **DEX handling scaling**_ _: C+_

 _ **Ranged mastery general scaling:**_ _C_

 _ **Aura infusion efficiency**_ _: B_

* * *

At the moment, he could only take 8 spare mags from his inventory during combat, thanks to his equipment adding what were referred to as inventory quick slots. It was unfortunate but they only appeared to work with supporting gear, ammo and the like, and didn't function with weapons.

Switching topics back towards his possibly sentient sword, constant aura infusions into Crocea Mors over the last few months had seen in regaining a sort of majesty once more, although it remained silent still. But while it hadn't 'spoken' to him again, it had done something rather creepy after he realized he wouldn't be able to use his shield in the city due to the little fact that it had his family logo smack dab in the center of it while deployed. The shield (then in sheathe form) had heated up momentarily and when Jaune had opened It up he'd found, miraculously, that the extremely blatant Arc family logo on the shield had apparently vanished, leaving it appearing as nothing more than an unmarked white shield.

Additionally, the status of his weapon had changed at some point, either due to him momentarily 'awakening' his weapon, revealing its true power (or at least more of it) or his increased observation skills letting him see more of said true power.

* * *

 **Crocea Mors (Epic)**

 **Appearance:** _A pristine white shield with the Arc family crest (currently hidden) overlaid on the center of the shield, in its alternate form the shield looks like a relatively normal -if high quality- sheathe. The shield is paired with a masterfully crafted longsword that has no signs of damage or wear despite Crocea Mors incredibly long history of combat. Both pieces seem to possess an almost alien majesty in their appearance, which is heightened the more aura is contained within the blade._

 **Description:** _An ancient armament that puts even master crafted weapons and armor to shame, having been in the possession of the Arc family since the beginning of recorded history (approximately 1000 years ago, after the fall of the old kingdoms) this weapon is a famous symbol of the Arc family. Despite appearing as being a normal if almost unbelievably high quality weapon, it appears there is something more to this Arc family heirloom…._

 **Weapon Type:** Sword and shield-sheathe combo

* * *

 **Sword**

 **Durability:** _Indestructible_

 **Base attack:** _D++_

 **DEX attack rate scaling:** _S+_

 **STR attack scaling:** _S+_

 **Sword mastery general scaling:** _S+_

 **Luck critical attack scaling:** _A+_

 **Aura channeling efficiency:** _S+_

 **Aura capacity:** _SSS++_

 **?: ?**

 **?: ?**

 **Special traits:**

 **Grimmsbane (A) :** _+50% armor penetration and damage to all Grimm_

 **Arc family Legacy (A) :** _-80% total attack damage when wielded by someone not born or inducted into the Arc family, the sword has an uncanny tendency to return into the possession of a member of the Arc family whenever lost or stolen through a series of almost unnatural coincidences._

 **Aura Over-limit (E- - to SSS++):** _Releases aura stored within the blade to unleash an attack of overwhelming power, if the weapons wielder is not experienced enough to control the overwhelming flow of aura all aura within blade will be expended in this attack. If the quantity of aura within the blade is too high for the wielder to control this attack can cause physical and spiritual backlash ranging from minor strain to fatal recoil (both physically and spiritually). Current wielder limit without sustaining permanent physical or spiritual damage is C++ ranked over-limit_

 **Aura resonance (SSS):** _The more aura is stored within Crocea Mors the higher its base attributes are and the more of its special traits are unlocked._

 **User strengthening (D):** _Passively increases the attributes of the wielder, increases in rank based on stored aura. At current rank +40 to all stats._

* * *

 **Shield-sheathe**

 **Durability:** _Indestructible_

 **DEX parrying scaling:** _S+_

 **STR stability scaling:** _S+_

 **INT soul magic defense scaling:** _S+_

 **Shield mastery general scaling:** _S+_

 **Special attributes:**

 **Unfaltering (A):** _Completely nullifies physical damage on successful blocks_

 **Arc family legacy (A):** _Becomes extremely unwieldy and difficult to use when wielded by someone not born or inducted into the Arc family, this sheathe-shield combo has an uncanny tendency to return into the possession of a member of the Arc family whenever lost or stolen through a series of almost unnatural coincidences._

 **Aura resonance (SSS):** _The more aura is stored within Crocea Mors the higher its base attributes are and the more of its special traits are unlocked._

 **Defense strengthening (D):** _Passively enhances all defensive armaments and skills being used by Crocea Mors' wielder, increases in rank based on stored aura. At current rank +10% effect to all defensive skills and gear._

* * *

Of course, considering the rather prominent fuck you of his weapon not only becoming epic ranked instead of legendary but also having a special attribute ranked at SSS++ Jaune had spent a fair amount of time pandering through his menu until his semblance decided to throw him a bone and explain what the fucking hell that meant. With both an actual rarity chart and an explanation as to the potency of various weapon stats Jaune was now more knowledgeable… if now mildly terrified that a full powered Aura over-limit with Crocea Mors could possibly split a fucking continent.

* * *

 **Rarity ranks:**

 **Shoddy - Common - Uncommon - Rare - Exceptional - Mastercraft - Legendary - Epic - Transient - Godly - Phantasmal**

 **Equipment attribute rankings:**

 **E- to E++: near 0 stat, all but unusable, trash equipment stat**

 **D- to D++ : low, basic equipment stats**

 **C- to C++: mediocre, decent equipment stat**

 **B- to B++: high, exceptional equipment stat**

 **A- to A++: very high, First class equipment stat**

 **S- to S++: Extremely high, Super-first class equipment stat**

 **SS- to SS++: Monstrously high, Peerless equipment stat**

 **SSS- to SSS++: Impossibly high, equipment stat exceeds what should be physically possible, anti-continent grade for attack stats.**

* * *

While Jaune imagine pulling off such an attack would probably require aura somewhere in the range of hundreds of billions of points (and would undoubtedly kill whoever used said attack) it was still kind of a wtf moment when he learned his family's heirloom had the potential to be a WMD far surpassing anything the four kingdoms had at their disposal.

Mildly unnerving implications as to the nature and extent of his family heirloom's ability aside, Jaune was moving into the last portions of his preparations for tracking down the government agency involved with Black dust, namely, setting up a 'kill zone' so to speak, even if he'd specifically designed it to be non-lethal. While he was safe from his own scroll being tracked electronically the stolen scroll would have its location triangulated quite quickly, assuming his hunch worked, and seeing as he would be using the scroll at the time he'd probably have at least a few government agents on him by the time he'd finished getting what he needed, especially considering they wouldn't have a method of checking on him remotely (considering he'd have removed all nearby cameras).

While research done by a regular civilian wouldn't warrant such a response, research done from a heavily modified scroll owned by a thug that had possibly reported it stolen from an area without a method of checking its user was probably enough to warrant a bit of attention. From removing nearby cameras to setting up and mapping out various escape routes and nonlethal traps Jaune had spent the last week turning an abandoned construction site in an equally unpopulated city block on Mistrals outskirts into a nigh perfect battleground for him. Seeing as a 10-year-old buying massive quantities of stuff was suspicious in its own right, let alone if said stuff was soon after found used in traps against government agents, Jaune had 'acquired' basically everything in the same way he'd acquired the spare scrolls.

With all the time he'd spent painstakingly tracking down what he needed and appropriating it from various less than savory individuals, Jaune's current opinion on such actions could be succinctly explain as such: 'God damn, I wish I had auto-loot'.

Were it completed, Jaune assumed the building he was using would have been an office building of some type, but with only the bare frame of the building and a sparse handful of floors and walls completed it was like the world's most over the top jungle gym for someone like Jaune, and an absolute nightmare for anyone without 3-dimensional movement proficiency, even without the traps Jaune had installed. The fact that trapping was yet another skill that fell under the umbrella of his «Subversive Arts» skill was frankly just rubbing it in.

Even with all this, Jaune understood he was banking on no hunter level combatants above high D rank appearing, something he was actually confident about. Between the surge in individualism after the great war (forcibly stimulated in Mistral, as part of the losing side) and the difficulty of making hunters C rank and above to things they didn't want to very few high-level combatants ended up in the more clandestine part of government service. After all, if you're an individual possessing enough power to plow through hordes of Grimm who's going to want to go through the trouble to live a life where you have to hide everything about yourself and live in the shadows. For most people, rank C and above meant fame and fortune, yet another reason as to why the covert agencies of the kingdoms seemed to suck so badly.

Jaune's current level might be considered scraping the bottom of C-rank prowess, meaning he was through the relatively easy to pass lower rankings and into the realm of annoying power inflation. He estimated he'd had to roughly double his stats to reach the very bottom of B-rank physically, to say nothing of skill levels, meaning an experienced C-rank hunter would still be able to smack him around with ease and a B-rank could probably one-shot him, meaning if one showed up he'd have to resort to running like a little bitch, unfortunately.

* * *

 **Due to accepting reality, you have gained 1 point of Int and Wis.**

* * *

"Oh, fuck off." Jaune mumbled even as he arrived back at his nearly finished 'kill-zone' having navigated back towards the sparsely populated area of mistral as the sun began to fall behind the horizon. Moving to finish the last of his traps, Jaune checked his equipment one last time before night fell, donning his mask with a practiced motion and steeling himself for the task ahead.

With one last once over on the hacking software he put together on the stolen scrolls Jaune exhaled once and typed black dust into the search engine. Barely 10 seconds later the second scroll picked up someone else trying to get information on the first scroll to no initial success. While it wasn't meant to actually stop someone from tracking the scroll, Jaune had thrown in a bit of anti-tracking and a few anti-virus programs into the first scroll, fairly shoddy in nature but hopefully enough to draw attention to said scroll so he could have an easier avenue for his own hacking.

5 minutes in and whoever was on the other side still hadn't cracked through the first layer of his little firewall while Jaune had already passed a few levels of clearance through theirs'. A surprisingly good outcome honestly, he was fairly certain they didn't realize they were being hacked back and his own scroll clearly wasn't considered much of a priority, judging by the mediocre at best hacker working against it. The organization clearly hadn't considered someone might try and hack them in response considering how weak their firewalls were, the most difficult part was honestly making extra sure they didn't realize he was hacking them, going brute force style and he'd probably be able to break through in 10 minutes at most.

25 minutes later and Jaune was already halfway done downloading everything related through black dust, at which point his opponent finally managed to triangulate his scroll's location. It was honestly shocking that it'd taken them a half hour to get through it all, but Jaune figured that was a result of the shoddy firewalls he'd put up being low priority, something better would've probably diverted more resources and manpower and get torn down much faster. Considering how much more information he had found than what he'd been expecting he still need around 15 more minutes before he could cut the connection and move, meaning the response to his search would probably reach him before he could leave unfortunately.

Well considering how low a priority hack it was they probably won't send much, fortunately.

* * *

 _ **? headquarters**_

"We're through! Triangulating now!" a man yelled in relief.

"Finally, what the hell kind of firewalls were those?" another man yelled as he slumped in his chair.

"No clue, but I'm sending a priority 1 response to the location of that scroll." A third man, clearly the highest ranking, responded glancing around the room "20 D-rank combatants, some of the best of the black ops division, they even have a squad leader nearing peak D-rank."

"You sure we can't get them support from a few C-rank huntsmen?"

"Yeah let me just call up that one C-rank guy still in black ops, now what's his name? Oh, right Michael mc-doesn't-exist!" the commanding officer shot back scathingly, shamelessly stealing a line from a certain abridged series as the author super casually pushed the blame onto a single scene character.

The whole, losing all but their entire huntsman corps thing during the great war and responding recruitment campaign had led to extreme pride for those who were, or were otherwise training to be, huntsman. Good for recruitment, but unfortunately bad for convincing the more competent ones to agree to hide their identities and status as huntsman to enter black ops. While most kingdoms had a dozen or so C ranks and maybe a few B-ranks (hell Vale was rumored to have a bloody A-rank) as part of their special forces, Mistral was currently greatly understaffed in regards to high level clandestine agents, something that was a noticeable sore point for those in command.

Trying to force it (even with C-rank combatants) was never not going to blow up in Mistrals face. 'Oh sure! Let's force this guy who's going to be handling state secrets and performing vital cover-ups to do this one job that involves him having to give up everything he's ever known, have no friends, and even being declared legally dead to his family, it'll be great!' was a pretty good summation of how that was going to turn out.

"I don't like this." Someone murmured "It's the middle of the night and we've got no idea who we're up against."

"I know, but if the specifics of Black Dust gets out, its going to be a shit storm of epic proportions, even if other kingdoms are probably already researching it secret. It doesn't take an egghead to know that shit is way more effective against hunters than it is Grimm, let the public learn that and then throw in the fact that people won't have trouble thinking the Mistralean government is still holding, and acting on, a grudge regarding our hunter corps and we're in for a political nightmare."

The room's other occupants had no response to this.

"Looks like I have guests" Jaune mused quietly, glancing down at the scroll in front of him "about 10 minutes to go huh?" he smiled behind his mask "Looks like I'll have to go keep them company then" the boy murmured even as he left the small room, slipping into the shadows.

 **«Jace Ollen Lv89»**

 **«Rio Sel lv 81»**

 **«Kerry Kent lv 76»**

Alongside those three Jaune spotted 17 others that were roughly around the same level as the 2 lower level agents outside the building. While the level 89 guy was the strongest and appeared to be in command, the remaining agents we all Solid D-rank, something that hinted towards a surprisingly elite special forces division under Mistral's control, if this was the response to such a minor thing. If they could throw these kinds of task forces around Jaune was going to have to be careful not to draw to much of their ire in any traceable way.

Unfortunately, (for them) there didn't appear to be any Faunus in the group, meaning their visibly was comparable to Jaune's own in the same way an NPC soldier's was to Big Boss's, hell in this lighting Jaune figured he might actually be able to pull off the cardboard box trick… well if he had a cardboard box anyway. Still, in a head on, fair fight Jaune would lose badly, but the moment a stealth force was at the level of only being able to win if the opponent showed themselves and fought a straight up fight it was already a decided match.

As if to prove this, one of the operatives chose that moment to stumble into one of Jaune's traps, its concealment combined with low levels of light causing the man to walk right into it. In a fraction of a second the man was covered in a viscous liquid and hauled upwards by his leg in an upgraded version of the classic snare trap leaving him 50 feet in the air hanging by his leg as the rest of the operatives froze and took up combat positions.

While normally even a D-rank hunter could easily get out of a trap like that, the trap's victim quickly fell limp as the viscous liquid covering his body took effect, the high-potency tranquilizer knocking him out with ease.

Unfortunately, after the first trap there was no way he could count on them simply falling into them without trouble, as they would take the time to watch their step if they could, which simply meant he couldn't give them the chance. Silently dropping down into a blind spot Jaune proceeded to -stealthily- smack the back of one of the operatives head with the still sheathed Crocea Mors, managing to do the same to a second operative before the sound of the first dropping like a sack of bricks alerted the rest.

"We've got hostiles!" one of them roared in the most generic alert phrase ever even as Jaune bolted from his current location into another part of the abandoned building. The operatives attempted to follow him, entering the building without issue only to get caught in a nightmare only held back from being a deathtrap by its owner's design. Flashbangs triggered by tripwires, faulty floors, snare traps, nets, and more hunter grade tranquilizer than they could shake a stick at all while being hounded from a distance, the dull thud of silenced gunfire the only hint to their aura enhanced senses that one of them was about to get nailed with a bullet infused with just enough aura to bruise and knock them off balance without piercing their aura shields.

* * *

… _When we fought on the lower floors he was above us, bullets crashing into limbs, buckets of high end tranquilizers dropping from above, covering the ground with a slippery sludge even when it missed and quickly leaving those splattered by it hazy and incapable of remaining attentive. When we fought on the top floors he was below us grabbing people through various gaps and openings in the floor and yanking them downwards to the lower floors in painful but ultimately nonlethal falls that left several of our number on their backs gasping for breath only to be soaked in tranquilizer before they could recover. When we fought on the middle floors he was everywhere, above and below, left and right, behind us, in front of us, yet when we turned to attack he was already gone even as we dropped like flies._

 _What followed would best be described as a hopeless and one sided thrashing, as we found ourselves attempting to fight in a trap infested maze of a building, being picked off one after another by what felt like an Invisible Shadow. In a matter of minutes only 3 of us were left as we somehow managed to get outside into a portion of the abandoned construction site that was little more than the most basic foundations. There was nowhere for him to hide, no place to have readied a trap, and yet we stood with our backs to each other in a triangle shape, desperately searching the surroundings for something that might as well have not existed. It was at that point that a solid thud drew our attention towards one side and for a moment we saw nothing, before our eyes locked onto the figure standing nonchalantly and staring at us from perhaps a dozen feet away._

 _Ice shot down our spines alongside the realization that it had taken us several seconds to notice somewhat standing in out in the open. Even once we saw him it was like our eyes kept trying to gloss over him, like we had to pay extra attention just to keep seeing where he was._

 _The figure's mask was like a black hole, noticeably darker than even the dimly construction site we stood in as a pair of baleful blue eyes stared through the mask at us, glowing with an ethereal light that caused the figure's eyes to seem to dominate the room. Looking into those eyes made it easy to keep track of him, but meeting his gaze was much easier said than done. Seemingly rather diminutive in the height, the figure that had torn through most the stealth corps like they were rank weaklings stood looking impassively at us for a moment, judging us and weighting our worth, before taking a step forward and beginning to approach as our hearts leapt into our throats._

 _The 3 of us clutched our weapons and prepared to die, forgoing any attempts at stealth and roaring out our last defiance, we the charged the figure with everything we had. Our best blows were warded off or evaded with ease, sometimes by mere inches as if to mock us, bullets were dodged, the figure seeming to move to evade them before the shot had even been fired. Anything that did hit seemed to do nothing, all while those baleful eyes watched us coldly. The other 2 were defeated in short order and soon after I too began to fall into unconsciousness. As darkness overtook my vision I found myself remembering a fiction novel I'd read not too long ago about a legendary infiltrator, and with this I realized who we'd been fighting, in essence, if not name._

" _Shadow of Shadows…" A spy amongst spies, an agent amongst agents, a ghost to even ghosts._

 _We had never stood a chance from the very beginning._

 _But I still wonder… why did he leave us alive? And what did he want?_

 _-Excerpt from Jace Ollis's field report on the unsuccessful operation *redacted* regarding *redacted*. Further information Classified, A-level clearance required._

* * *

Starring at the form of the last operative, now collapsed on the ground, Jaune stopped channeling aura into his eyes, the room growing darker as the active effects of his «preternatural eyesight» faded. Stumbling over to a wall Jaune collapsed heavily against it, letting out a heavy sigh.

"I got arrogant" he murmured "3 at once was probably pushing it a bit wasn't it." he continued glancing at the health and aura bars at the corner of his vision.

* * *

 **Health: 15%**

 **Aura: 12%**

* * *

"Preternatural eyesight burns through aura way too fast, I hope I'm not imagining the fact that the cost is going down as it levels" Jaune murmured pushing himself up and off the wall and moving to return to the sight of his stolen scroll "download should be done by now at least" he mumbled checking the various end of combat popups that had appeared in front of him.

* * *

 **20 Mistralean black ops agents (Average level 80) have been defeated, 600,000 Experience has been gained:**

 **(20*3,000) base *5 (trait modifier) *2 (A glimpse of death) = 600,000**

* * *

 **Congratulations! You are now level 102, you now have 50 attribute point to spend.**

* * *

 **For passing the level 100 milestone a new skill or trait will be acquired based on prior actions!**

 **Initializing…**

 **Scanning records…**

 **Registering prior parameters…**

 **Skill acquisition complete! Advanced tier skill «Limit Cut» acquired! Skill «Limit Cut» is now level 10!**

* * *

 **For passing the level 100 milestone you may now equip up to 2 titles at any given time.**

* * *

 **«Subversive arts» is now level 56!**

* * *

 **Aura sub-skill, «Aura shield» is now level 14!**

* * *

 **Skill «Advanced bladed weapon mastery» is now level 40!**

* * *

 **Skill «Defensive arts» is now level 41!**

* * *

 **Skill «Preternatural eyesight» is now level 39!**

* * *

 **Advanced tier skill «Overwhelming» has been acquired! Skill «Overwhelming» is now level 10!**

* * *

 **Title «Shadow of Shadows» acquired!**

* * *

 **Strength has increase by 3.**

* * *

 **Agility has increase by 5.**

* * *

 **Vitality has increased by 2.**

* * *

 **Intelligence has increased by 2.**

* * *

 **Wis has increase by 2.**

* * *

 **Luck has increase by 2.**

* * *

Jaune smiled lightly before dumping most of his newly acquired stat points into his Dexterity stat and then focusing on his new skills and titles.

* * *

 **Shadow of Shadows:** _You are the unquestioned master of stealth and covert actions. While equipped increases the effect of all covert type skills by 40% against other practitioners of clandestine arts. Passively increases the growth rate of covert skills by 20%._

* * *

 **Limit cut (Active) lv 10 (advanced tier skill):** _The ability to surpass one's normal limits for a short time in exchange for being rapidly exhausted. Increases all physical stats by 12.5% and increases stamina consumption by 287% while active. Overuse may cause minor health or (if health is depleted) muscle damage._

* * *

 **Overwhelming lv 10 (Advanced tier skill):** _Reduces damage received from opponents in panicked or otherwise disturbed emotional or mental states._

* * *

"Cool" Jaune murmured equipping his new title as he finally reached his destination, removing the flash drive he'd downloaded the server's information onto and stowing it into his inventory. With one last look around Jaune proceeded to perform a quick cleanup of anything that might connect this to him (or otherwise simply be useful) before he vanished into the night, leaving behind 20 unconscious black ops agents, all with decidedly less equipment on their persons than when they'd arrived.

"Just another day in the life..."

* * *

 _ **A/N 1**_

 **Finally, back with another chapter! This reveals a few of the more esoteric aspects of Jaune's semblance. While most people are content to just keep with the whole, it's a gamer semblance because plot, I wanted to go a bit more into how it functions rather than just leaving it as a 'because reasons' sort of thing. Granted casuality manipulation is still vague by nature, but Jaune will get a more precise view and understanding of his semblance as his aura mastery skill levels up and ranks up. Semblances are representations of a person soul, and I feel personal experiences can only change them minorly. In a world without video games Jaune's semblance may have manifested in a different way while still being centered around casuality manipulation. As I said in the first chapter, Jaune's semblance can't warp the laws of reality, instead what his semblance does is interfere with how reality reacts with Jaune.**

 **Regarding equipment. Crocea Mors is bullshit but the issue is Jaune using one of its active abilities costs him (at least) a month's worth of aura change, meaning using short term powerful abilities lower the weapons stats and consistent bonuses in turn. Note that Jaune, Mr. my-aura-regenerates-in-minutes-faster-than-most-people-do-in-days, has been pouring nearly all his excess aura into Crocea Mors for the last 3 months to get that level of enhancement, and its only enough for one, maybe 2 attacks like the one he dished out on the Nuckelavee. Additionally, since he can't really control it at this point, he's basically emptying everything he has in 1 attack at this point, disregarding the physical and spiritual strain it would put on him. Crocea Mors is basically both Jaune's primary arms and his single use golden bullet. It gives him a chance against opponents normally far beyond him but if he misses said chance he's still screwed.**

 **The Legend of the Legendary Nevermore Knight grows! While this title is equipped Jaune is a lot stronger, even if his stats don't technically change much, but the downsides of acting like a natural Chuunibyou while it is equipped causes Jaune far too much mental damage for extensive use (even disregarding the strain of using it) and the flamboyant tendencies Jaune adopts under the effects of this title are super bad for stealth. Fortunately for Jaune this title can't be changed during combat, meaning that it is impossible for him to equip it mid-battle and hence not doing so doesn't count as holding back during a fight. Of course, the potency of this title will often force Jaune to equip it prior to a particularly risky fight or tough mission, which will in turn increase the renown of the title in turn making it stronger in an infinite cycle that decades from now ends in Jaune being nigh invincible but still losing at life (i.e. if/when he's unmasked in a distant dark future).**

 **Below is some more optional world building stuff because not everyone is a Gamer, another Grimm bestiary Entry, and then some more notes with spoilers for Canon and possibly other stuff. Also, for everyone else on remnant, Lol to Jaune's 'measly'** **in combat** **aura recovery rate of 200 points per minute.**

 **A/N 1 End**

* * *

 _Headmaster Ozpin's beginners guide to understanding hunters_

 _Chapter 2: Ability classifications_

 _While almost everyone knows the typical low E to high S general ranking classification for hunters few people know how this is derived as well as the scores and ranking for the various sub categories that help define a hunter's rank. Seeing as hunters have various specialties a B-rank hunter doesn't necessarily have B-rank strength, speed, or aura quantity. Glynda Goodwitch, for example, only had C-rank strength and speed at the time she became A-rank (2 decades ago) that was offset by her immense aura reserves and ability as a dust caster. Most hunter's abilities are gauged by the following 12 categories: Aura Quantity, Aura Control, resting Aura recovery rate, Semblance potency, Semblance Mastery, Strength, Speed, Endurance, Evasion, Close range combat proficiency, mid-range combat proficiency, and long range combat proficiency. Additional categories are added based on specializations, such as Dust mages having a Dust magic category affecting their overall ranking._

 _While most up to date and even the specifics of older specified rankings are private and classified, I have received permission from a recently minted B-rank hunter (21 years old at this time) to display her current rankings as of this moment. The hunter in question, Miss Mordred Arc, opted to do so as she hopes revealing her weaknesses will encourage her to fix them rather than let them lie with her recently acquired status as the youngest B-rank hunter in history._

 _ **Name: Mordred Arc**_

 _ **Gender: Female**_

 _ **Age (biological): 21 (18)**_

 _ **General Rank: B-**_

 _ **Combat type: Universal (proficient in anti-unit, anti-group, and anti-army combat)**_

 _ **Aura Quantity: A- (45,000)**_

 _ **Aura control: D+**_

 _ **Resting Aura recovery rate: C (9 per minute)**_

 _ **Semblance Potency: A-**_

 _ **Semblance mastery: D+**_

 _ **Strength: B**_

 _ **Speed: B**_

 _ **Endurance: B**_

 _ **Evasion: B-**_

 _ **Close quarters combat: A-**_

 _ **Mid-range combat: B-**_

 _ **Long-range combat: E-**_

 _ **Additional Categories**_

 _ **Rapid recovery: C**_

 _ **Survival skills: B-**_

 _ **Leadership (during battle): D (B+)**_

 _While most of these ranks cannot be numerically classified precisely, recent advances in technology have allowed for a rough quantification for aura reserves and aura regeneration rates outside of combat. Below are the relative degrees of mastery for skills based abilities alongside related aura quantity, with high (+) and low (-) representing the upper or bottom 3rd for that letter ranking._

 _ **E: Novice. Less than 2 thousand 'points' of aura. less than 1 point of Aura regenerate per minute.**_

 _ **D: Competent. 2-5 thousand 'points' of aura. 1-5 points of Aura regenerated per minute.**_

 _ **C: Skilled. 5-20 thousand 'points' of aura. 5-12 points of Aura regenerated per minute.**_

 _ **B: Master. 20-40 thousand points of Aura. 12-20 points of Aura regenerated per minute.**_

 _ **A: Grandmaster. 40-100 thousand points of Aura. 20-45 points of aura regenerated per minute.**_

 _ **S: Legendary. More than 100 thousand points of Aura. More than 45 points of aura regenerated per minute.**_

 _These categories and many more are compiled together to define a hunter's rank, so remember, just because a huntsman is B-rank does mean they are automatically better than anyone at a lower rank at everything, choosing the right person for the right job can make up the difference between victory and defeated on the battlefield._

* * *

 _ **A/N 2 Begins!**_

 **The above is how normal people rank and record the skills and ability of hunters after various examinations, tests, and other measures of aptitude. Aura is something I felt could be numerically measured with technology, something Jaune's semblance synced up to in regards to its own measurement of it, while skills and physical ability can only be vaguely gauged for the most part. While this may seem somewhat pointless due to Jaune's observe (now advanced reconnaissance) ability, not all the information he has on people will be derived from said skill and others will likely put together a record for his own abilities. And yes, Jaune's aura recovery rate is indeed already S+ ranked, percent recovery plus massively heightened max reserves be bullshit yo. Also weapon stats and hunter stats don't really match up in case you haven't realized.**

 **And yes this is several years out of date from Mordred's other status sheet precisely so you can't try and figure out a precise point relation to the various stat ranks normal people use.**

* * *

 _Professor Peter Port's Peerless Pamphlet Pertaining to the Proper Pursuit and Persecution of Prey._

 _Section 1: Low-class Grimm_

 _Entry # 013: The Nevermore_

 _Author's note: The most common species of airborne Grimm, the Nevermore's status as a Low-class Grimm has been contested by scientists and hunters for decades. While, like mid-class Grimm, the Nevermore is capable of feasibly reaching low B-rank combat prowess this process takes longer than it would in most Mid-class Grimm, taking upwards to 6 centuries for it to reach low B-rank. Like all Grimm, simply being considered low-class does not discredit its possible threat, even to fully fledged huntsman. In my youth, my hunter team and I found ourselves pinned in a cave by a flock of Nevermores as we fought off hordes of other Grimm species, unable to flee lest the Nevermores impale us as we attempted to pass the chokepoint at the cave's exit. In the end, as my teammates grew weary, I was force to battle all but alone for nearly 2 days straight until we'd slew all the remaining Grimm in the area and no more reinforcements could come to hinder us! But, once more, this is a story for another time._

 _Description: Ranging in size from the scale of a vending machine to that of a full-sized airship Nevermores resemble massive crows, fitting of their tendency to form massive flocks, or as hunters refer to them Murders of Nevermores much in the way a flock of crows is referred to as a murder of crows. Using both their vicious talons and their razor-sharp quills for close and long range combat respectively the Nevermore has one of the most varied effective combat range out of Grimm species, even compared to high-class Grimm. Their most powerful sense is their eyesight, don't count on a Nevermore not seeing you even if you are kilometers away seeing as they have incredibly sharp eyesight, beyond even the level of a Faunus with B-class aura based sensory enhancement on top of their naturally sharp eyesight. Fortunately, the rest of their senses are not as strong as their eyesight, with limitations similar to conventional avian species, meaning their hearing ability is sharpest between 1 kHz and 4 kHz, much higher than the frequency of human speech and even footsteps. Considering that, like normal birds, their ability to discriminate between frequencies is only ½ to 1/3 as good as a normal aura less human, any level of background noise makes it difficult for Nevermores to use their sense of hearing reliably in combat, especially considering they are as vulnerable to loud noises as aura less humans are. Add this to a rather weak sense of smell and a sense of touch dulled by their thick feathers and eyesight becomes a hunter's greatest concern when facing Nevermores._

 _Combat Strength: Having arguable the highest variable range of strength out of low-class Grimm Nevermores generally range from E-rank to low B-rank, although there have been a handful of low A-rank Nevermores spotted (and slain) in the past century, with evidence leading to suggest they had been alive for around 2 millennia. Born as fledglings at low E-rank, it takes a nevermore anywhere from 30 to 40 years to reach what is referred to as the standard level of a nevermore, by far the most commonly seen, sitting between mid and high E-rank strength. After this it takes an addition 50 to 60 years to become a seasoned (experienced mind you, not food) Nevermore with anywhere in the D-rank strata. At this point it takes it anywhere of 1 to 2 centuries to become and Elder nevermore (low to mid C-rank) and then another 2 to 3 centuries to be considered an Ancient Nevermore (High C to low B-rank). This means it theoretically takes a Nevermore 1400 years to go from low B-rank strength to low A-rank, vastly longer than most mid or high class Grimm and hence the reason Nevermores are still considered low class Grimm._

* * *

 **A/N 3 Begin!**

 **Spoilers/potential spoilers ahead**

 **Be warned ye foolish mortals**

… **..**

 **Literally no one stopped reading, right?**

…

 **Yeah, I thought so…...**

 **To those of you didn't notice it, my reference to Headmaster Lionheart and Watts (whose name Jaune only vaguely remembered) is indeed an indication to those who are caught up with RWBY Canon that the CCT was deliberately kept below peak operating efficiency by Salem and her cohorts for the sake of the attack on Kuroyuri, which was intended to spread discontent throughout Mistral but despite months of planning somehow only managed to help further the career of an (unwilling) Sentai hero.**

 **The way I see it (and how I will be treating it in this story) is that Watts isn't a well-known member of Salem's group, if only because in canon neither him nor Headmaster Lionheart saw any problem in the two of them meeting in an extremely public place filled with hunters (i.e. Lionheart's office in haven academy). Each of Salem's subordinates has their own roll: Cinder is an underworld manipulator, Tyrian is an Insane assassin, Hazel gives off the impression of being a more direct combatant or an enforcer type existence, and my view of Watts is that he is probably a more public figure, moving among the strata of upper class and influential individuals and working from there to further Salem's plans. He's the bad guy that only a handful of people (I.e. other bad guys) know is a villain and is primarily in the role of pushing stances and reforms that benefit Salem's agenda rather than actual criminal action. Whether this ends up being true in Canon or not, this is how I will be treating it for this story.**

 **On a side note, Salem actually had a short Blue Screen of Death upon being told that the reason why the organized attack on Kuroyuri that slaughtered of 4/5ths of the settlement had actually mildly boosted the perceived safety of Mistral in the eyes of the average resident was because of the supposed appearance of a hero straight out of a second-rate cartoon. She then comes closer to a mental breakdown than she has in decades after realizing that she is the only member of her group present that realizes just how stupid the name Legendary Nevermore Knight is: Tyrian is oddly conflicted and thinks the name is super cool, Watts talks about the Legendary Nevermore Knight like a supervillain would their nemesis (despite Jaune being unaware of his existence and the two never having met), and Hazel starts acting like he's a stereotypical hotblooded rival of the main protagonist (Jaune) from an action anime (despite, once again, having never met him).**

 **This all leaves Salem questioning her sanity as she watches her subordinates (who are now ignoring her completely) spend an inordinately large amount of time focusing on the (currently nonexistent, from a sane perspective) threat the Legendary Nevermore Knight represents. The fact that Tyrian is actually focusing intently only sends Salem further down the rabbit hole. After the meeting, the still shell-shocked Salem runs into a young Cinder (who was not present at the meeting as she had not yet taken a position in the higher ranks of the organization at this point) and begins to ask her what she thinks of the name Legendary Nevermore Knight before cutting herself off in fear of the response and instead choosing to delude herself that Cinder would obviously take her side in the matter and that** **SHE WASN'T CRAZY DAMN IT!**

* * *

 **Edited: 12/18/17**


	7. Chapter 6: A song to drag you home

"Shit."

Looking over the information he'd acquired the previous night, Jaune was well aware that he'd just made the understatement of the century. Jaune was sitting against a tree in an out of the way corner of a park working through the information contained in a nondescript scroll. After last night's fight Jaune had spent the last 14 or so hours murdering any possible trail he may have left behind, running all over Mistral, breaking, melting, and then burying the now unneeded stolen scrolls after transferring all the information he needed into one he was using currently, which had been modified to be physically incapable of wirelessly connecting to anything but still had the best firewall he could make on it just in case (paranoia ho!). It hadn't been until midafternoon that he'd actually decided to look over what he'd found, leading to his current situation.

While there was no clear information as to the exact location of a laboratory researching black dust, there was plenty in regards to its functions and known properties, and with what he was seeing Jaune could say for certain that unlike other types of dust -which could be used in numerous productive ways- Black Dust was good for only 2 things: Destruction and outright Annihilation… okay basically only one thing, really.

Like other dust types Black Dust was heavily connected with a naturally occurring force, with the specific force in particular making Black Dust both cumbersome to use and horrendously potent in regards to Mass destruction. Gravity. Black Dust's 'element' was gravity, and it expressed this in quite possibly the most heinous way physically possible, at least in regards to its simplest method of use. When provided with a sufficient initial input of Energy, aura or otherwise, Black Dust created what amounted to a self-contained black hole. Its initial effect upon activation was, rather than an explosion, an overwhelmingly powerful implosion prevented from being at the level of planetary destruction solely by the fact that the Gravitational field somehow possessed a limited range, dependent on the amount of Black Dust used.

While the duration of the gravitational field was only a few seconds in effect, the interior gravitational strength towards the center of the field could range upwards to an excess of several thousands of times that of Remnant's normal gravity: buildings, the ground, even S-ranked hunters would stand no chance of surviving if they were caught within the effect radius. When the duration of the effect wore off everything that had been gathered by it would be released at once, the vast amount of air draw in by the sustained vacuum at the effect's outskirts exploding outwards creating an extremely powerful shockwave.

There were only a handful of downside that prevented Black Dust from being a matchless weapon of destruction: its rarity, its horrible usability, and its horrendous cost efficiency being prominent among those. Even to detonate a piece of black dust the size of a grain of sand roughly 3 points of aura (or other energy equivalent) was required, although when detonated it would apparently cause an effect radius roughly 3000 times that of the piece of black Dust used. That meant it would require a piece of black dust around 1 foot in diameter for an effect range like the one that had leveled Vale, as well as an insanely vast amount of power to initially detonate, around 3 billion points of aura all in all. Of course, other energy sources were capable of powering this detonation, as the city of Vale likely used an equivalent amount of energy every few days or less simply operating.

Another weakness -which was arguably the reason why Jaune wasn't completely screwed- was that after passing roughly 70% on its charge threshold black dust appeared to disturb solar based light within an immense range around it, which was likely the cause of the sky above Vale literally going pitch black prior to the explosion. This meant detonating it from a stationary location would be painting a massive target on the bombers' heads with the immense energy signature doing the rest in regards to tracking it down, something that left a mobile bomb the most viable option for use, despite the incredible energy and equipment constraints required.

In all likelihood, the bomb would enter Vale on a train or airship when it was nearing 100% charge for detonation, and even then, it would be limited to A-class airships and the very largest of trains, due to space -for the extremely bulky equipment likely required- and energy constraints regarding detonation. Knowing his luck, Jaune was all but certain it would be on an airship, in which case the easy option of wrecking the tracks and derailing the train carrying the bomb a few miles out of Vale and letting the black dust bomb's shitty range vs potency ratio do the rest would be firmly impossible.

Other information included the fact that no one had managed functional dust engraving or weaving with it yet and that only a few ounces of it was acquired yearly by Mistral overall. It goes without saying that stealthily grabbing enough fragments to fuse into a larger crystal was likely an extreme chore from start to finish, and likely meant that the terrorist organization known as Rook (guilty until proven innocent) had been stealing shards of black dust for what might have been decades in preparation, seeing as the prospective crystal would likely weigh several dozen pounds.

This should mean that looking over the records of Mistral's Black Dust acquisition over the last few decades (which he now possessed) Jaune would be able to find points were Black Dust shipments went missing, were lower in quantity than expected, or were otherwise allocated to certain projects in unnaturally high quantities. Should, of course, does not mean that it did as there appeared to be little to no discrepancies in the shipping pattern which mean one of two things:

First, that Rook possessed a method of acquiring Black dust independent of the kingdoms (or, at the very least, Mistral), which would mean very little of the information he'd just gotten had any use in tracking them down. This was the worst-case scenario, but fortunately also the less likely of the two, due to the fact that even a kingdom could only acquire a handful of ounces annually, making it unlikely or outright impossible for an organization not nearly as big to do the same, even over the course of centuries.

Second, that Rook's acquisitions happened directly at the source, and the bits of black dust they were shaving off the top had already been taken by the time the discovery was reported to Mistral. This would be troubling although ultimately not as much as the first possibility, as it would mean Rook had ties to the very top of Mistral's source (as well as the likely only source) of Black Dust: The Schnee dust company. This is significantly more likely than the first option, it honestly wouldn't surprise Jaune if Rook had a standing deal to purchase quantities of Black Dust under the table from the Schnee dust company.

The fact that the SDC was selling to Mistral despite being an Atlas-based company likely meant they were selling to the other 3 kingdoms as well, something further supported by basic supply and demand economics. Selling a smaller amount to each kingdom rather than the whole thing to one would drive the per unit cost up even higher than it already was, and he hardly saw the SDC refusing to sell it to a fifth party so long as they could match the ante.

Disregarding the first possibility -which he could do little about if it was that- Jaune had decided to treat the second possibility as his focus. Even if he wasn't wholly correct the number of leads he could eliminate by looking through the Schnee's records was immense, making it a good direction even if they somehow weren't Rooks suppliers. The head of the SDC (who was all but assuredly the one mediating the deal) wouldn't have records of it on any of the SDC's servers, but at the same time would keep evidence somewhere for potential leverage against Rook, something he could trade to authorities in exchange for amnesty if something went south and he had to reveal his not-technically-illegal-but-still-totally-illegal transactions.

This meant there was likely a method of tracking Rook's base (or at least a few outposts or safe houses he could use as a starting point) hidden somewhere with the SDC head's private office, residence, or another high security location. As far as finding said location, Jaune assumed the SDC head likely performed the transactions himself or delegated it to an extremely trusted subordinate that was kept extremely close at hand. Mistral purchased small quantities of black dust whenever they were 'found' and without exception purchased all they could, a process likely mirrored by the other 3 kingdoms and Rook meaning said transactions should occur a couple of times annually in regards to Rook specifically, meaning observing said transactions would let him get both a glance at Rook's negotiators and a way to pinpoint the location of whatever the SDC had on Rook.

While he'd also like to follow Rook's negotiators he couldn't follow both them by himself and whoever the SDC sent at once, and he guess the collective dirt the SDC had gathered over decades would likely eclipse whatever he could find alone by following Rook's operatives.

… And now he felt really lonely and slightly depressed…

* * *

 **Elite tier skill** **«Brooding» has been acquired! Skill «Brooding» is now level 34!**

* * *

 **Title** **«** **Loner (initiate)** **»** **has been acquired.**

* * *

Jaune froze staring at the popup for a moment emotionlessly before opening his menu and looking at the skill description.

* * *

 **Brooding (Active) lv 34 (elite tier skill):** _Oh, woe is me~ for I am alone! So! So! Alone! By channeling the overwhelming power of your inner emo, you can attract Grimm from great distances with the feeling of your delicious sorrow and burgeoning Loner status. This skill isn't anything like a rip-off of a final fantasy 'summon enemy' skill or item, not at all~._

* * *

 **Loner (initiate):** _This title is great! While at this rank all it does is passively enhance the_ _ **«**_ _ **Brooding**_ _ **»**_ _skill's effect potency and growth rate by 50%, at higher ranks there won't be anything that can stop you! Probably…_

* * *

"…"

* * *

" _... in other news, authorities are still investigating the source of the shriek that witnesses have described as being 'like the unholy death wail of Cthulhu himself' that originated from central park in the late afternoon hours yesterday. While hunters' have confirmed there are no Grimm present near or around the park it is still being cordoned off for further investigation. Additionally, we have a few unconfirmed reports of an individual whose description matches that of the man who fended off the ancient nevermore attack on a civilian Cruise ship and rescued the remaining citizens of Kuroyuri leaving the scene. Considering experts agree no human vocal cords could have ever produced such an eldritch sound there are numerous theories that this individual, famous as the Legendary Nevermore Knight, fought and slew a beast of possibly demonic origin that had somehow snuck into Mistral._

 _While authorities have neither confirmed nor denied this theory, early released reports indicate the damage found at the predicted epicenter of the shriek show signs of damage to numerous trees matching the description and appearance of claw marks, considering the depth of theses marks and the fact that no residue remains from whatever created them it has been agree they were not created by a human being, as it would be impossible unless a person could somehow negate damage an aura shield would not be capable of blocking and simultaneously not wear down their nails while carving out the trees._

 _Authorities have also expressed their surprise at the unexpected -but not unwelcomed- lack of panic in regards to this incident which several individuals interviewed earlier this morning have commented on confidently._

' _It's not a problem anymore' 17-year-old Ashe Grayson explained confidently to reporters 'The legendary Nevermore Knight must have eliminated it already, whatever it was, there's no way he would have let something capable of making such an ungodly and soulless sound survive any longer that the moment he found it. Whatever it was, it's gone.' she had stated to murmurs of agreement from her nearby friends._

 _Additionally, it has been suggested that…"_

* * *

 **Congratulations! Title** **«** **Legendary Nevermore Knight** **»** **has exceeded 100 total fame level, title effects have been enhanced!**

* * *

 **Brooding is now level 41!**

* * *

Jaune just barely managed to repress the strangled growl (he wasn't whimpering) that attempted to escape his throat as he moved towards a more out of the way part of Mistral away from anything resembling a radio or television with almost clinical efficiency.

Of course, since there was absolutely nothing wrong or otherwise related to him going on in the city of mistral at the moment there was no problem in him ignoring everything and everyone in favor of returning to his line of though regarding the SDC that he'd been… distracted, from yesterday for no real reason at all.

It wasn't like his horribly embarrassing secret had somehow increase in renown by at least another 3rd of its previous level over night or that he'd discovered his dancing skill included singing, which in turned also allowed him to exceed the limitations of typical human vocal cords to make whatever sounds he felt like making or anything. He wasn't at all depressed by the fact that he apparently had the ability to make a sound inhuman enough to be compared to Cthulhu, not at all…

* * *

 **Brooding is now level 42!**

* * *

NOT. AT. **ALL.**

Anyway! Regarding the situation with the SDC: while it could be said that he had a rather clear direction to go in now, he was simply not strong enough to do so. The head of the SDC Jacques, I-have-more-money-than-god, Schnee was one of the few people on remnant who had the ability to, and indeed already has, employ multiple B-rank hunters and even a pair of A-rank hunters. While Jaune's father had described Jacques as being greedy and egotistical, he was also apparently highly intelligent and completely ruthless. Considering the Schnee dust company controlled roughly 65% of remnant's global dust market even the governments of the four kingdoms couldn't take him lightly.

While most of the Schnee corporation's security forces were mechanized or otherwise cheap low D or even E rank fodder mix in with the occasional C-rank, Jaune didn't imagine the SDC head slacking on a deal relating to black dust (I mean seriously, 6.5 million lien per ounce?), and depending on how much Jacques trusted in them (or at least their attachment to their paychecks) Jaune would probably be up against either a couple of B-ranks or one of the A-ranks (both would be overkill, at least from his prospective).

Fortunately, Jaune didn't necessarily have to fight them in this case, stealth was an equally viable option, especially considering his greatly heightened ability to conceal his aura. While Jaune didn't particularly feel like risking it against people he stood no chance of escaping from at this point, he felt like he at least stood a decent chance of being able to remain undetected. Of course, a decent chance wasn't enough that he'd risk an instant game over -so to speak- when it could be avoided with a bit of extra effort.

His immediate agenda included upgrading his equipment as he could (thanks for the material drops stealth ops team), digging a bit deeper into Mistrals underworld against stronger groups (higher level mobs) and gathering some Dust to try his hand at dust engraving.

The stealth ops team he'd trashed had actually had equipment made of surprisingly high quality material, although the workmanship could've been better, and he'd already managed to break down a couple and had apparently used them for upgrades on his own gear last night after falling into a fugue state of sorts, his intense concentration having nothing to do with him trying to distract himself from anything, of course.

He'd focused primarily on his body armor last night (which had been undamaged after his fight, despite him taking hits, suggesting his equipment would remain undamaged in the same way his body did until his health dropped) and had apparently gone a little bit overboard. Apparently because, honestly, he didn't really remember most of it.

…but all's well that ends well!

…probably…

* * *

 **«The Shadow of Death's Embrace» composite body armor (Exceptional)**

 **Appearance:** _Despite its impressively high defensive capabilities this dark colored apparel is easily concealed as civilian clothes with even so much as an open jacket worn over it. Closer inspection reveals masterfully woven armor that allows this piece of light armor protective capabilities comparable to slightly above average sets of heavy armor all while being incredibly (almost unnaturally so) light and unobstructive, even by the standards of its armor class. Covers torso and legs._

 **Description:** _Body armor created and now enhanced by the one that flourishes in the shadows of death's pallid hold. Despite its creator giving no thought to comfort or aesthetic appeal in order to maximize its protective value and minimize its obstruction of movements, this body armor's streamlined design and masterful craftsmanship has naturally granted it a level of comfort and almost artistic appeal._

 **Armor type:** _Full body armor (light armor)_

 **Physical defense rating:** _C++ (B++) (?)_

 **Dust magic defense rating:** _C++ (B++) (?)_

 **? defense rating:** B- (A-) (?)

 **Mobility enhancement:** _E++ (C++)_

 **Special traits**

 **«Death's embrace» (B-):** _Enhances defensive properties the closer the wearer is to death. Passively nullifies Mobility obstruction and raises Mobility enhancement to E++ rating. If the wearer is at least severely injured Mobility enhancement is increased to C++ rating._

 **«Shadow» (C+):** _Increases all defense ratings by one full letter rating against attacks performed without a clear awareness of the wearer's location, reducing the effects of random or area of effect attacks intended to smoke out the wearer from concealment._

 **Utility: (C+):** _Adds 12 inventory quick slots_

* * *

In all honesty Jaune wasn't really sure how exactly he'd managed to upgrade his armor so radically, even if the materials the black ops team's gear was made out of had been good, and he'd accidentally closed the popup he'd gotten when he came back to himself after finishing the armor, so he'd never know what it said.

It wasn't like he'd read some bullshit about him having channeled the power of a loner and then infused his armor with it along with the shadowed darkness of his undiluted emo emotions and then closed the popup in near animalistic rage whilst growling, no sir, not at all…

Not at all…

Guns! Let's talk about guns!

All 20 of the black ops shmucks he'd rob- *cough* gotten item drops from had had at least a sidearm with them, with a couple even possessing mechashift weapons. His final loot total had been 5 mechashift weapons, 20 standard issue side arms, 7 assault rifles of various types, 3 sniper rifles, around 32 knives of varying types (concealed and otherwise), a few kits filled with medical supplies and an absolute shitload of silencers and other attachments.

Thanks to both mechashift technology and the four kingdoms' typical penny pinching, most of the attachments were effectively universal, meaning he now had a night vision scope (which clearly hadn't helped the other side all that much) and as many spare silencers as he'd need for his own firearm in the near future.

To be honest he didn't really need most of what he'd taken, the mechashift weapon's melee aspect were useless compared to Crocea and the guns weren't much different in quality level from what he already had, he'd mostly just taken everything from his gamer implicit grab _all~_ the items mindset. To be honest he'd probably just start deconstructing, rebuilding, and just generally messing around with most of it in order to grind his crafting skill, although he'd probably need at least some specialized equipment for that. Yet another reason to pay some Mistralean gangs a visit, to acquire (hold x to loot all) tools they undoubtedly had after fierce negotiation (Finish Him!).

On a different note his 11th birthday was coming up in 2 months or so… it had been nearly 10 months since he'd ran away, 11 since he'd gotten that damn oracle. For as long as that time period felt to him, it somehow also felt incredibly short for what he'd been through, for how much he'd progressed. A year ago, he'd have gotten his ass kicked by anyone with a brain and an unlocked aura, but now? He'd -not even 2 days ago- all but manhandled 20 D-rank special forces agents like they we're scrubs, even if he'd gotten cocky against the last 3. He'd passed level 100, more than 13 times what he'd been 11 months ago, and yet he still wondered if he was progressing fast enough.

"5 years and a few odd months left…" Jaune murmured to himself quietly, clenching his fist and straightening up "Better get back to work."

* * *

 _2 months later (5 days after Jaune's 11 birthday)_

As it turned out there were a couple of problems targeting various criminal organizations and stealing their stuff in quantities impossible for normal individuals via inventory bullshit. These problems included said criminal organizations concluding that he had backing of some sort, helping him move whatever he acquisitioned. Seeing as the local law enforcement were (as usual) running around like headless chickens they had quickly come to assume it was another gang/family/what-ever-the-fuck-Mistralean-criminal-groups-were-called backing him.

Jaune's internal monologue when he came to this realization could be accurately summed up as such: "Did I just accidentally a gang war?"

Jaune was fairly certain the answer to that question was yes.

On the plus side, he'd avoided the possibility of creating another weird alias via freely donning and removing his mask whenever the fuck he felt like it in a (clearly not desperate) attempt to connect his identity as Jaune Arc to his actions while wearing his mask, even if he didn't do so by name. The plus side of doing almost everything at night was that descriptions of his appearance were vague at best, even if they would likely be connected to him by name if anyone who'd met him and knew him by name ever saw him. While he didn't get an alias, he had gotten a few titles, and while some of them were somewhat skeevy he had decided that since they weren't the same kind as a certain title-that-shall-not-be-acknowledged that they were A-Okay. While he was unfortunately still stuck at a maximum of 2 equipped titles at the moment, «Shadow of Shadows» had already become fully functional even while unequipped, freeing up a slot for one of his new titles.

In order of acquisition his new titles were **«Master of Life and Death»** , **«Demon child»** , **«Hunter of the Moonless night»** , and **«Ace of all trades»**. While the titles themselves were rather exaggerated and somewhat shadily named, Jaune couldn't deny their potential usefulness.

* * *

 **Master of Life and Death:** _If you wish for death, so be it, if you wish for life, it shalt not be snuffed out. While this title is equipped and you are not aiming to kill an opponent, greatly increases the ease of nonlethally disabling a target even if you are going all out and using what would normally be lethal attacks. While going for the kill all injuries you inflict will heal at a degraded rate, and bleed more profusely than they normally would._

* * *

 **Demon child:** _Baleful blue eyes pierce the darkness, shooting spikes of ice down the spines of the guilty. While equipped slightly reduces aura consumption of Preternatural eyesight and increases damage dealt proportionate to an opponent's personal fear towards you._

* * *

 **Hunter of the Moonless night:** _He hunts, darkness proving no shield to those whose tracks he follows. While equipped, increases damage dealt during the night time based on the phase of the moon, ranging from 5% on the brightest night of the lunar cycle to 40% on its darkest. Increases to 100% bonus during lunar eclipses._

* * *

 **Ace of all trades:** _An expert is a master of one, a generalist is a master of none, and you? You shall claim all trades as your profession, somehow, someday. While equipped, Increases growth rate of all applicable skills by 1% per cumulative 10 levels of all skills above the level of effected skill. (possessing 10 level 40 skills would provide a 10% bonus to a level 30 skill)._

* * *

With a larger sample size to examine Jaune had managed to put together a clearer understanding of title and how they typically manifested. The rule of thumb was that the more restrictions and limitations a title had, the more potent it was while its effect was applicable. Additionally, having more detailed 'records' relating to a title would enhance its potency (for those with few restrictions) or loosen its requirements for activation (for those that were already potent). The most potent titles were those that were based on a current reputation, as they borrowed the acknowledgement and metaphysical weight of other people's existences.

Returning to his own titles;

 **«Master of Life and Death»** was probably the closest equivalent to a holding back skill he was going to get, although it evidently wasn't a surefire thing. Having received it after his first kill (something that had left him maintaining gamer's mind at its highest setting nigh constantly for roughly a week) Jaune had equipped it the moment he'd 'mastered' his **«Shadow of Shadows»** title, in part because it would help him keep down the number of people he would have to kill in the future, and also because it would allow him to fight more freely against any members of his family if (or more likely, when) they tracked him down.

 **«Demon child»** and **«Hunter of the Moonless night»** were both potent but limited titles that were suited towards individual premeditated usage (the next eclipse was going to be a doozy) although they were also both rather unreliable, seeing as the effect could range from near useless to overwhelming.

Lastly **«Ace of all trades»** looked like a late game Deus-ex-Machina being thrown at him early on in a poorly hidden attempt to conceal what it was, at first glance at least. The catch was that it was actually quite hellish to properly take advantage of, in all honesty. While the potential cumulative growth rate boost might be mouthwatering, the little detail that it only counted skill levels greater than whatever was being boosted meant he'd literally get a 5% growth rate bonus towards a level 50 skill for every level 100 skill (which would be hell to acquire in the first place) he possessed, dropping to a 4% growth rate bonus towards a level 60 skill and so forth and so on. It would have been quite nice as something acquired after he'd already grinded a bunch of skills later on but right now Jaune felt like a kindergartener being told the benefits of graduating college. The only skill that would be able to benefit from it now and for the foreseeable future was Flash step (now at level 3) and even then, that was because the skill leveled up at an inhumanly slow rate despite near constant usage.

Edgy titles and his increasingly question reputation aside, actively targeting the more prominent and powerful members of the Mistralean underworld had netted him much more experience that picking of the minor groups had, although at this point he'd gotten most of what he could out of Mistral's underworld bigshots. Sitting easy at level 131 Jaune had begun readying himself to leave Mistral, gathering any supplies he needed and plotting his next destination in what was likely his last few weeks in the Mistralean capital.

With this in mind, he took another glance at his status screen.

* * *

 _ **Name: Jaune Arc**_

 _ **Title: Underdog, Master of Life and Death**_

 _ **Age: 11 years**_

 _ **Aging rate: 55% standard human rate**_

 _ **Lv: 131**_

 _ **Health: 23019 [100%]**_

 _ **Health regen: 10.43% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)**_

 _ **Aura: 47303 [100%]**_

 _ **Aura regen: 10.55% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)**_

 _ **Vitality: 345 (992)**_

 _ **Endurance: 328 (943)**_

 _ **Strength: 342 (983)**_

 _ **Dexterity: 413 (1187)**_

 _ **Intelligence: 367 (1055)**_

 _ **Wisdom: 332 (955)**_

 _ **Stat points: 0**_

 _ **Luck: ?**_

 _ **Charisma: ?**_

* * *

Contrary towards his usage of a sword and shield (which were often signs of a more tankish fighter) as primary weapons he'd actually taken towards focusing on his speed in the last few months, largely because it had the best compatibility with stealth skills and would also allow him to escape more successfully when necessary. Higher speed also meant shorter travel times, meaning he was less likely to spend nearly as much time traveling to another kingdom than the 4 or so months it had taken him to travel to Mistral once he'd set it as his destination. It was almost funny how weak and unprepared he felt despite having acquired prowess on par with the average beacon graduate at age 11. Less amusing was the fact that he'd hit the harshest soft cap ever in regards to experience and leveling up, even the toughest of underworld enforcers and local Grimm having that ever so cruel .5 modifier to experience gain more often than not nowadays.

Fortunately, it wasn't as if there was nowhere tougher still within the range of the kingdoms, something supporting Jaune's next destination as the best possible choice. Atlas, as freezing cold and dull as it was, looked like a great grinding spot preempting him visiting one of the truly wild places in Remnant. Not only were the Grimm inhabiting Atlas's mountain regions supposed to be brutal, the environment itself was adverse enough that it would make fighting even more dangerous and potentially lethal! (yay!) Adding to how it was probably a great spot to grind his Vitality stat (via swimming half naked in a partially frozen river and letting his health bar tell frost bite to go fuck itself), the fact that his new stats would let him make any and all mountains his bitch (open world means open world you stupid inanimate chunk of rock), and Atlas's advanced technological prowess (shinies ahoy!) and Atlas was the best location for Jaune at the moment.

Of course, being the location of the SDC's main branch and even the Schnee family's primary residence was another notable aspect, although if he'd be ready to try and tackle that giant yet or even by the time he had to shift to somewhere more dangerous was still up in the air. Atlas was also the most likely source of an airship (or the technology/design for said airship) capable of providing the necessary energy output to detonate a black dust bomb, not to mention their intense focus on science and technological advancements meant they'd likely know more about said dust than Mistral did.

Jaune was also hoping to acquire a vehicle or two, seeing as he saw no reason why his inventory -being capable of containing what must have been a dozen tons of stol- legally acquired goods (self-defense laws allow response with equal intent and hence robing a robber was perfectly legal… probably) Jaune was confident he'd be able to fit a bullhead into it. While it was unlikely that he'd be able to acquire anything cutting edge, there was undoubtedly numerous decommissioned vehicles sitting around various junkyards just waiting to be purchased and then upgraded over time through his increasingly impressive technological skills.

Jaune was also expecting to meet a bit more trouble in regards to hacking and other mental focused activities in Atlas. Unlike physical stats, a person's Intelligence and wisdom stats could be wholly accessed even without aura, meaning high level hunters were only at most a couple of times smarter than normal people, if that, considering civilians typically spent a lot more time pursuing intellectual pursuits than hunters did. It had been somewhat odd the first time he seen a level 80 auraless civilian with 10s and 20s in physical stats but an almost incomprehensible 600 and 550 base stats in Intelligence and wisdom respectively. With Atlas' vast number of extremely intelligent scientists and computer engineers Jaune imagined he might meet a few with Int stats that made his own look like a joke, especially considering Atlas's tendency to have skilled scientist's aura's unlocked to enhance their longevity and mental processing abilities, despite their near zero combat ability.

While his combat prowess was monstrous for his age he was still incapable of doing anything if he couldn't manage to outsmart his opposition to at least some extent, at least in regards to the four kingdoms. If Atlas managed to corner or otherwise track him somehow, they'd be fully capable of burying him in more numbers than he could face more than long enough for a big shot to come around and disable him, which would quickly see him dropped into general Ironwood's palm and sent back to his parents in short order along with Vale's newly reinstituted death sentence. Atlas's approach towards hunters was a major part of this danger, seeing as they systematically trained and recruited hunter's as high ranking military officers leaving said hunters vastly more connected to the Atlesian chain of command than any other kingdom.

While that same system might make it so truly exceptional hunters appeared less frequently, it assured constant production and availability of competent ones and allowed Atlas's government much more control over the use and deployment of said hunter's.

Long story short, Jaune was expecting to find an absolute horde of high D and low to mid C rank combatants in Atlas, even if B and A ranks would be considerably less frequent than they'd be in other kingdoms. There was also the fact that Atlas's mechanized units had supposedly reach the level were the best could be considered low C rank in combat prowess, with rumors of a prototype that would push even further beyond that resounding in what underworld circles Jaune had queried (interrogated/stolen information from).

That was all in the future though and Jaune was intending to spend his last week or so in Mistral (after finishing his preparations) doing something he hadn't really done since this whole thing started: Relax. Sure he joked and messed around momentarily, but his objectives and goals were always present in the edge of his mind and while he didn't intend to slow down for long, he figured he'd managed more than enough in the time he had to warrant a short break.

Once he was finished gathering what he needed he would spend the last 7 days messing around, going to festivals, eating junk food, wasting money at arcades and just generally acting how someone his age should be acting. While gamer's mind kept it at bay for the most part, the stress of everything was starting to get to him, bearing down on him and fraying the corners of his mind. He wouldn't do anyone good if he fell to pieces before he saved Vale and over rely on gamer's mind would just enhance the risk in the event that it wound of not being enough or simply failing. It was evident that it could be overwhelmed and making it deal with a slew of constant woes and mental maladies seemed like a recipe for it to fail if his emotions ever became truly chaotic.

With that in mind Jaune redoubled his efforts to finish his preparations, all while making a list of what he wanted to do for his late birthday vacation week, a small smile rising to his face as he did so.

* * *

On the first day he ate candy and junk food until his stomach hurt and then kept eating, eventually realizing gamer's body was somehow negating his stomach aches in exchange for health damage. Jaune ended up losing more than 30,000 points of health over the course of the day without ever once getting into a fight.

On the second day he went to an arcade and showed those filthy casuals what was what (let's face it, everyone is a filthy casual to someone who's technically gaming 24/7). He'd also experimented to try and find the most insulting 10-word phrase without profanities he could put up in the top 10 high score list of every machine in the arcade. "I bask in your hatred and drink in your despair!" was one of his favorites.

On the third day he'd bought every comic book he'd missed in the last year and binge read every single one of them from dawn until dusk.

On the fourth day, he fucked up, because of course his biggest screw up would come not from hacking a government agency but instead in trying to take a god damn break.

* * *

He was relaxing in the park when it happened, sitting on a tree branch that would be difficult, but still doable, for a normal child of his age to reach. His image of normalcy was slightly ruined by the fact that the sheathed form of Crocea Mors was clearly visible on his lap but that was still in the range of normal-hunter-in-training child for his age. Having put together a playlist of a few songs on his scroll put a pair of headphones on and pressed play, blocking out his sense of hearing.

Mistake number one.

For a few minutes he simply sat there, leaning back on the tree trunk with his legs stretched out along the branch, gazing out across the park idly in absolute comfort. He was so comfortable, in fact, that he went ahead and closed his eyes, focusing solely on the music and wind flowing across his skin.

Mistake number two.

At first, he merely listened to the music but as the final song on the playlist began he, mindlessly, began to do something he'd done near constantly by himself when he was younger: sing along, softly at first, then louder.

Mistake number three.

And as everyone knows: three strikes, you're out.

* * *

Walking alone through the park Pyrrha Nikos found herself lost in thought far deeper than one would expect from a girl her age. Brooding over who she was and what she was becoming.

She was aware she was not what you'd call a normal girl.

In the first place few people would ever accuse a hunter or hunter trainee of being normal, but even amongst that crowd Pyrrha herself was most aware of the fact that she still didn't quite fit. A normal huntress-in-training was not capable of physically matching and often exceeding those 4 years her senior at age 11, a mere year after having her aura awakened. Someone normal did not acquire combat skills twice as sharp as her supposed peers in half as much time nor did they seem to recover aura at a rate that was actually visible during combat, despite it somehow slowing down outside of a fight. A normal trainee didn't find it all but impossible to feel fear. A normal hunter did not have a semblance that, while near useless against Grimm, seemed tailor made to overwhelm and overpower other people.

But above all, a normal person possessing so much would not have a subtle but ever-present desire for **More.**

Despite learning several times faster she still trained and practiced at least twice as much as her peers. Despite being strong and fast enough to completely overwhelm her age group she still strained to be stronger and faster, even as the subtle gap between her and those who had once been her friends grew more and more present she still encouraged the cause of that gap all while mentally pleading for it to disappear.

She felt no joy or accomplishment in surpassing and dwarfing her peers, no real sense of fulfillment in her matchless talent and yet for all her desire to be normal she could not bring herself to stop honing herself beyond all others any more than she could make her heart stop beating. The sole time she'd tried to stop progressing to stop isolating herself she'd lasted barely a day before returning to her regime.

It was not pride or aspiration, a desire to reach and surpass legends, nor was it an aspect of her personality. It was a primal instinctual drive, a hunger, a thirst, something that seemed more fitting in a wild beast or mindless berserker than a human being and it would never subside, it would never abate. For normal people, gaining strength was a challenge, a harsh climb up an increasingly steep cliff face yet for her it was a slippery slope than only her fear of being ostracized entirely kept her from bolting down full tilt.

Yet for all her abnormality should have worried and scared her it was only able to touch her heart in the most indirect of ways. Because of it she would grow faster than her peers, something that would make her far stronger than them in short order, this gap in strength would cause them feelings of inferiority and eventually they would grow distant, leaving her alone. If she had friends who wouldn't leave her regardless of her strength she knew fully well she'd have no issue with her irregularity, and for much of her life she hadn't.

Yet because she had no such loyal friends the whole charade came crashing down as she found herself realizing just how intrinsically wrong she was as a huntress-in-training, as a person, and as a human being. Yet even with her irregularity the realization that she was born to be different, born unable to relate to those who struggled to grow no matter how much effort she put into it, born destined to be idolized and ostracized regardless of her will was jarring.

Like a dam being burst she found herself overwhelmed with conflicting emotions, fear and conviction warring as rage and uncertainty coiled around her heart, a discordant horde of other feelings overwhelming her pushing her to the point of breaking, of lashing out, of something horrible before…

* * *

" _If I die young, bury me in satin_

 _Lay me down on a bed of roses…"_

* * *

Softly at first, barely audible in the background yet somehow demanding her total attention.

* * *

"… _Sink me in a river at dawn_

 _Send me away with the words of a love song…"_

* * *

Growing louder, bit by bit even as she found herself ambling towards the voice, barely aware that she was just one of many.

* * *

"… _Lord make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother_

 _She'll know I'm safe with you when she stands under my colors, oh,_

 _And life ain't always what you think it ought to be, no_

 _Ain't even grey, but she buries her baby…"_

* * *

The voice grew louder still as she drew near, washing over her senses like something divine, somehow untangling the knot of chaotic emotions that had seemed overwhelming but mere moments ago.

* * *

" _The sharp knife of a short life_

 _I've had just enough time~!"_

* * *

She entered a clearing with a sole tree standing tall in the center, finding herself among countless dozens all standing in complete silence, several with scrolls out and recording the voice all while gazing as if in a daze at the young boy reclined on one of the middle branches of the tree, his eyes closed and with headphones on as he sung.

* * *

"… _If I die young, bury me in satin_

 _Lay me down on a bed of roses_

 _Sink me in the river at dawn_

 _Send me away with the words of a love song…"_

* * *

She'd heard the song before, most people probably had heard at least one version of it and yet now, as it was sung…

* * *

"… _The sharp knife of a short life_

 _I've had just enough time…"_

* * *

It was like a choir of angels, sung by a lone boy with an impossible and almost transcendent quality that she knew no amount of practice would ever let her reach.

* * *

"… _And I'll be wearing white, when I come into your kingdom_

 _I'm as green as the ring on my little cold finger…"_

* * *

Yet for all its undeniable mastery the thing that struck her the most was the emotion each word was wreathed in, doubt, determination, uncertainty.

* * *

"… _I've never known the lovin' of a woman_

 _But it sure felt nice when she was holdin' my hand…"_

* * *

Tied together and imparted with empathy and sympathy two-fold, a child singing his heart out.

* * *

"… _There's a girl here in town, says she'll love me forever,_

 _Who would have thought forever could be severed by..."_

* * *

A child struck with a burden beyond his years and left alone.

* * *

" _The sharp knife of a short life,_

 _Well_ _I've had just enough time"_

* * *

A child who had come to accept giving everything of himself for the sake of others.

* * *

"… _A penny for my thoughts, oh, no, I'll sell 'em for a dollar_

 _They're worth so much more after I'm a goner_

 _And maybe then you'll hear the words I been singin'_

 _Funny when you're dead how people start listenin' …"_

* * *

The boy's voice washed over her, tearing away the doubts and shadows in her heart, the resolution in his words seeming to lend itself to her for a moment as her fears vanished and she simply listened imparting every word to her memory with almost desperate intent.

* * *

"… _If I die young, bury me in satin_

 _Lay me down on a bed of roses_

 _Sink me in the river at dawn_

 _Send me away with the words of a love song…_

 _If I die young, bury me in satin_

 _Lay me down on a bed of roses_

 _Sink me in the river at dawn_

 _Send me away with the words of a love song_

 _The sharp knife of a short life, well_

 _I've had just enough time_

 _If I die young, bury me in satin_

 _Lay me down..."_

* * *

In a handful of moments that seemed both too short and an eternity the song reach its end and the boy stopped singing, his voice fading off into silence. The whole clearing was completely silent, even the birds and animal's seeming to hold their breath as the boy pocketed his scroll, his eyes still closed, and lifted his arms up stretching even as his face left the tree's shadow fully revealing the boy's face as he slipped his headphones off, opening his eyes.

Vibrant green met boundless blue as, against all odds, her eyes met his for an eternal moment before the boy's eyes widened slightly in shock as he glanced around, noticing his audience for the first time.

Her aura enhanced senses caught him mouthing a word she knew would lead to her mother washing her mouth out with soap if she ever spoke it before the boy rose, the surrounding crowd beginning to slip out of their trace babble as the boy quickly grabbed his possessions (which included a sword she'd failed to notice resting in his lap) then and, before anyone could do anything, he **moved**.

He was down from the tree in an instant and half way out of the clearing in a heartbeat, his bearing taking him on a path just a few feet to the side of her. A hunter-in-training, likely one of her peers, Pyrrha had noted clinically even as she moved almost mindlessly. Seeking to prevent him from leaving, not wishing to lose track of the boy with such vibrant emotions and such a wonderful voice. He was as different as her, perhaps in another way but still, he was someone whose ability eclipsed all others, even more than her talent in combat did other trainee hunters. He was someone who could understand and would not ostracize her.

Yet for all of his vocal skill she was the fastest and strongest of her age group, with the strongest aura and best reflexes, his movements were well above average for their age group but nothing she couldn't track with ease. Moving quickly her hand darted out as he attempted to pass her, catching on to… nothing?

His form seemed to skip momentarily and he was behind her, having moved beyond her ability to perceive.

"Wait!" she found herself blurting almost desperately even as she turned and tried to pursue him, struggling to keep up for a few seconds before he glanced back at her momentarily, their eyes meeting once more "slow down!" she asked a hint of pleading in her voice.

The boy smiled almost sadly "Sorry, but even I'm not fast enough to think of slowing down quite yet." He replied ambiguously before suddenly his speed doubled or tripled even as he darted up into a tree, flitting through another dozen before she could blink and disappearing entirely soon after in an unbelievable display of speed that left her stunned as she stumbled to a stop and stood alone in the park, the uproar of the boy's remaining audience members reduced to a dull distant rumble by the ground they'd covered in a scant few seconds.

"Wait…" she mumbled aimlessly to the empty forest, her mind racing "who are you?" she asked quietly, knowing she'd have no answer.

* * *

After leaving the redheaded girl behind, Jaune was out of the park in 5 seconds, in 30 seconds he was already at the city limits, slipping past the security with practiced ease, and by the time a minute had passed he was 3 dozen yards outside of Mistral's walls and counting, tearing northwards as quickly as he could.

The second he'd opened his eyes and seen scrolls trained on him he knew he was compromised, there'd be a dust tube video with his singing in it before an hour had passed and his family would know his location within the day. He had to make as much distance between him and Mistral as physically possible as quickly as possible.

He had been planning to hitch a ride on an airship to Atlas, but waiting for such a thing was impossible now so he'd just have to hoof it and hope he could find a boat to slip onto when he reached the northern coast.

Even as he ran he found himself working through the handful of popups he'd received in the last few moments, one of which was the status of the redheaded girl after he'd reflexively checked it.

* * *

 **Dance! Dance! Legend is now level 61!**

* * *

 **Charisma has increased by 13!**

* * *

 **You have had a significant impact on «Pyrrha Nikos», an individual with a heroic fate! The weight of your existence has increased based on how you have effect this individual's future growth and development. You are now «The Blue-eyed boy with an Angel's voice» to individual «Pyrrha Nikos». +5 Luck.**

* * *

"Heroic fate?" Jaune mumbled softly "wonder what that is… well whatever I'm just glad that title like thing seems to solely apply to her view of me and isn't an actual title, I don't need another super embarrassing title which will for some reason have uselessly high specs." He grumbled before checking the girl in question's status sheet and promptly almost tripping.

* * *

 _ **Name: Pyrrha Nikos**_

 _ **Title: Once in a century Genius, Isolated in excellence**_

 _ **Age: 11 years**_

 _ **Aging rate: 70% standard human rate**_

 _ **Lv: 45**_

 _ **Health: N/A [100%]**_

 _ **Health regen: N/A**_

 _ **Aura: 5568 [100%]**_

 _ **Aura regen: 14.4 points per minute (boosted by 900% during combat)**_

 _ **Vitality: 53 (93)**_

 _ **Endurance: 81 (142)**_

 _ **Strength: 209 (366)**_

 _ **Dexterity: 215 (376)**_

 _ **Intelligence: 61 (107)**_

 _ **Wisdom: 82 (144)**_

 _ **Luck: 1**_

 _ **Charisma: 213**_

* * *

"The hell!" Jaune blurted out "Aren't her base stats actually higher overall than mine were at that level? Also a 900% boost to aura regeneration rate during combat? No fair, I want that." He grumbled "although 1 luck eesh, poor girl." Skipping passed her skills, Jaune focused on the girl's traits

* * *

 **Traits**

 **Greater Soul: you possess a soul more powerful than most, something that is reflect in your reserves: Doubles Aura gain per level and doubles aura gain per point of INT (100 aura per level plus 10 additional Aura per point of INT.)**

 **? Hero's ?: +3 Strength and Dexterity per level, Increases the growth rate of all combat skills by 300%, all combat skills start at a minimum tier rank of advanced. Luck stat locked at 1. Reduces aging rate by 15%. Greatly increases the growth rate of all stats, ?, ?.**

 **?: Exponentially increases all damage dealt and received. Greatly increases the severity of fatal wounds received.**

 **Tireless: Increases healing rate, stamina recovery, and aura regenerate rate by 900% during combat, disregarding stand in combat debuff. Overuse will steadily lower all stats until sufficient recovery time has passed.**

* * *

"I say again, eesh, poor girl, she's got protagonist syndrome just about as badly as I do, and between that third trait and her luck stat of 1 she's basically a cut scene death waiting to happen." Jaune frowned "It also doesn't take a genius to figure out what her titles mean so the order of events this time would be… lonely girl isolated by her overwhelming talent witnesses a boy with apparently transient singing plus movement above her own and tries to follow him and befriend him only get left behind because, for once, she isn't able to keep up… and now I feel like even more of a dick for ditching her, also, fucking dramatic irony, go away, no one likes you." Jaune fell silent momentarily as the miles slipped by before another though stuck him.

"Wait did I just become the type of character that appears in the prologue of a story or something that serves as an inspiration for the protagonist and then indirectly becomes a recurring major plot point as the protagonist learns of my feats and witnesses the effects of my actions in a manner that encourages a specific type of character growth all while I am totally unaware of the massive influence I've had on said protagonist until we meet face to face again years later and team up against some threat that ends up highlighting how said protagonist has grown from the lonely little girl who I left behind in the forest and how I'm no longer someone the protagonist is pursuing but instead an equal she stands alongside against the forces of darkness?" Jaune pondered seriously.

"But wait! Me realizing that would have a butterfly effect on my future actions and I might become more aware of the potential legacy I'm leaving behind and in doing so inadvertently change the way that protagonist looks at me shifting me from a goal to reach to that protagonist's love interest but due to the life I've lived I've become all gruff and isolated losing most of what social skills I have and not possessing a good ability to connect with others due to this causing the protagonist to spend a bunch of time helping me overcome my traumas eventually leading to us falling in love and living happily ever after!" he paused "also I blame hormones for that oddly specific delusion."

* * *

 **Because of… What the- no seriously what the fu- how did you? Stop being so goddamn genre savvy!** **Skill** **Oracle is now level 20!**

* * *

"ah ha! So I was right!" Jaune paused a slightly uncomfortable warm feeling blooming in his core "but about which one? And wait no, me learning of that would trigger the butterfly effect again shifting the most probable future to being-"

* * *

 **Because of SHUT THE FUCK UP! Seriously fucking quit it! You have gained 15 points of luck!**

* * *

 **Warning, due to overtaxing your semblance through continuous usage and leveling of high strain skills and stats without sufficient external compensation you have received the status effect Spiritual exhaustion (moderate) temporarily dropping all aura related skills and stat bonuses by 20% of their normal performance rates, continued overexertion has a chance of causing permanent damage.**

* * *

"… wait did I just almost cause myself spiritual damage by being too genre savvy?" Jaune mumbled "that's both hilarious and worrying and to think it all resulted from my attempts to distract myself from thinking about my family again… damn it." he grumbled he as he felt exhaustion creep into him somewhat as his aura weakened.

* * *

 **Brooding is now level 45!**

* * *

"….asshole…"

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Jaune is not allowed to relax for more than 3 days a year! The Genre Savvy council has declared that protagonists don't get benefits from child labor laws! In all seriousness I just though it would be hilarious if Jaune pulled off a bunch of covert stuff and started a gang war largely undetected for months but then got noticed on his 4** **th** **day of relaxation. I chose the male version of the song 'If I die young' because i noticed it had a surprisingly ironic connection with both this story and canon in a sense, if you think about some of the phrases, and secondly because its something i can imagine someone pouring a lot of emotion into during a relaxed setting. Throw in Jaune's Singing/Dancing skill having an effective level of 152 at this point and you get something that goes so hilariously viral his family is going to be like "Why the hell is Jaune's voice everywhere" -looks at video- "I need an airship ride to Mistral right F*cking now!"**

 **The last segment was an attempt at a humorous reveal as to how his semblance's quest system is able to confirm if something is true or not, it's using Jaune's Oracle skill to confirm quick yes or no facts about the current future, trying to get specifics is impossible but he is often able to get quick yes or no conclusions just so long as he has enough information to narrow down what he'd be looking for. It means that if he comes to the correct conclusion with enough supporting details and facts behind it he is able to be told 'yes this is correct' or 'no this is wrong' basically in the same manner a quest master would respond to player questions, without enough background on the other hand it'd basically be a 'you don't know' QM response. Additionally this isn't ironclad, Jaune's actions can shift something from 'this is going to happen' to 'this could have happened' meaning that quest parameters that are supposedly confirmed can actually change.** **Repeated uses of this (as in more than once in a blue moon) is incredibly taxing to Jaune, and he doesn't really know how to use it on command in the first place.**

 **Shifting topics slightly, Quests in this story are grand things, Jaune is never going to get a quest like go to this location and beat X number of mob A, Quests are fully fledged slay the dragon and rescue the princess affairs, if it doesn't pose a risk of A: killing Jaune. B: taking months or years. And/or C: having another type of horrendous fallout if failed, then it is not going to be a quest.**

 **Think of the 3 quests Jaune has seen so far: One is saving a kingdom from destruction, another is getting multiple skills to extreme levels of mastery in around 6 years and the 3** **rd** **(currently inactive) quest was joining a several hundred-year-old shadow war centered around deciding the fate of mankind.**

 **No milk fetching quests for you silly readers (unless you want me to throw in a quest for a fresh gallon of milk from a 5000-year-old Dragon Grimm that lives on the dark continent that is, I'm sure I could work that in here somewhere… not really, don't make me write that… although "Bitch I milked a dragon!" is a pretty universally valid comeback… and yes I did read that in abridged Alucard's voice)**


	8. Chapter 7: Repercussions

**A/N**

 **Just a quick note for people who are assuming Jaune's little Jaunra-savy moment (I'm not apologizing) was foreshadowing or setting in stone a future event, it wasn't. Remember that Jaune is currently trying to change the future using bits and pieces of information he has from a potential future in which he did not acquire said bits and pieces. Basically, the oracles Jaune gets are what the future would be if no one received an oracle between then and now, meaning the simple act of receiving said oracle changes the outcome. Only major events are largely set in stone barring constant deliberate interference.**

 **A/N end**

* * *

Mordred Arc hated the concept of luck.

It was something used by people who hadn't put in enough effort to explain their losses and write off others' successes. From a logical standpoint, it was a laughable concept: If something had a chance of occurring 50 percent of the time then that was that, simply because it occurred more or less often then that did not change anything. From a less cynical standpoint, Luck was the difference between a person reaching B-rank and them dying before reaching C-rank. That was why she hated it.

For all that her efforts were her own, she couldn't deny that all she had accomplished might not have been possible if not for luck. The luck to be born into a family of hunters, the luck that each and every member (herself included) of said family possessed natural talent and ability bordering on unnatural with few exceptions.

Or rather, no exceptions, nowadays…

But that was just her luck. The way it always turned out. The way it apparently always turned out for every member of the Arc bloodline. They would always find themselves in the middle of the worst possible situations and then somehow come out of them better than ever, even if the others around them didn't fare nearly as well. Good wrapped in bad, a gain found only with loss.

An escort mission goes to hell, with opponents far more than what they were ready for yet somehow, she survives while those she was assigned to protect perish.

An opponent beyond her team that they somehow beat with her nearly unscathed and her teammates critically wounded.

A hint to the location of a missing loved one, only to find the trail cooling far too quickly.

Her brother finally showing the talent to reach his dream, only as he disappeared into the night.

She -along with the rest of her family- had recognized Jaune's voice the second they'd heard a single note of that video. The voice of her brother, of a boy with so much talent in everything except what he so desperately wanted, or so they had thought. At the end when she saw him move, saw him slip passed that redheaded girl in the last few moments of footage of him, Mordred had realized her brother could already move at least a third of her own peak speed, to say nothing of his downright unnatural acceleration rate.

Her parents alongside herself, Jane, and Sapphire had been in Mistral by the brink of dawn the next morning, with Lily taking a temporary leave from Signal to look over their younger siblings. After realizing that fully censoring Jaune's face from circulating videos was both an exercise in futility and surprisingly pointless (Between the shadow from the tree he'd been sitting in and the excessive glare reflecting off Crocea Mors, very little of Jaune's face had actually been captured on video) they had quickly moved to find leads on the runaway Arc's location or destination. With the help of Haven's headmaster, they had linked Jaune to dozens of incidents over the course of the last few months and to equally numerous rumors of a masked boy with baleful blue eyes rampaging through the city's underworld.

For the Arc family and Mordred in particular this all led to a startling revelation: that her once clumsy, doe-eyed, and naïve little brother was the cause of a several-fold increase in hardened Mistralean criminals willingly (desperately) turning themselves in, pale faced and shaking, just to get off the streets and away from him.

Yet somehow the most spine chilling thing revolving around this incident was what little portion Mordred had heard of a murmured comment from professor Ozpin as he looked over what they'd found so far while the others continued scouring the city. Mordred wasn't sure why exactly Jaune's recent actions and growth had drawn the man's attention so sharply, but she wasn't going to refuse help from the man who was considered Remnant's strongest huntsman by any means.

"… I see… so he's one of…" the strongest huntsman had mumbled gravely, in a manner that was somehow wistful, like someone recalling a bitter memory from oh so long ago.

Mordred had waited for a moment, expecting him to continue before taking a sharp step towards him and spontaneously demanding "One of what?" when it became apparent the headmaster was lost in thought.

A sudden spike of primal fear shot down Mordred's spine for a minuscule yet overwhelmingly oppressive moment as the headmaster started, the legendary huntsman inconceivably caught off guard, reflexively slipping into a combat mindset and stance momentarily in his surprise before instantly relaxing even as Mordred collapsed to her knees, panting and shaking.

Blinking once Ozpin flinched before beginning to apologize "My sincerest apologies miss Arc," he began with genuine remorse "my mind went drifting back to a rather… strenuous… event in my life. Although it hasn't happened in years until now I tend to get a bit twitchy around that subject."

"M-my brother" Mordred managed, cold sweat dripping down her back "What…" she exhaled a shaky breath "What does it have to do with my brother" she demanded, heedless of her shaking body.

The headmaster frowned, opening his mouth momentarily before sighing "Nothing you need to worry about, it's not something that poses a new threat to your brother's safety and I can't even say for certain if I'm right about it." He paused "Please trust me on this" The man said firmly.

Mordred frowned momentarily before nodding reluctantly and returning to the task at hand.

3 months after their search of Mistral began, the Arc family was forced to give up, having failed to find a single significant clue as to Jaune's whereabouts, destination, or goal.

Yet another dead lead.

* * *

Joan Arc was currently attempting to exact some horrible vengeance upon an inanimate object for crimes she knew full well it was entirely innocent of.

Her awareness of the training dummy's innocence did nothing to stop her from impaling it with the point of her Dual-bladed assault lance and then cleaving the left side of its torso open as she removed her weapon by yanking it to the side with violent force even as she spun with the momentum and sliced it again, fully bisecting the inanimate object in a disturbingly brutal manner for an 11-year-old girl.

Joan was red faced and panting heavily for reasons entirely unrelated to physical exertion and entirely related to the sheer burning indignation and rage she felt towards her current situation. She shouldn't be stuck at home in the Arc manner beating up wooden dummies that no one in her family would get anything constructive out of hitting. She should be in Mistral trying to find her idiot twin brother to drag his ass back home and punch his stupid girly face in until he cried and apologized for ditching her and leaving on his own.

Not that she'd forgive him that easily. He'd have to work his ass off to make her forgive him, doing all her chores, cooking her multicourse meals, singing her to sleep, braiding her hair and…

Joan let out a strangled sob as she fell to her knees, tears spilling from her eyes as her anger sputtered and died. She let out a choked bitter laugh. Who was she kidding… the moment he was home safe she'd probably grab onto him and not let him go for weeks after trying to be angry and then caving after few moments because _where was he! she was so worried and scared! and why couldn't he just come home!_ Her breaths came in strangled gasps as she shook, her eyes red as tears continued to flow down her face and onto the ground.

15 months. 70 weeks. 490 days.

That was how long it'd been since her twin brother had vanished one night without warning and not returned.

Her parents knew something. Just like Mordred and Jane and Sapphire and Lily and even Amethyst, while the only thing she and Azure got were cryptic statements that Jaune was fine and he wasn't dead and that they couldn't say any more for some reason that she knew was bullshit. It was because she was 11 and Azure was 13, and they were both too young to be told some terrible truth involving her twin, and it was for her sake, but what her parents and older sisters just couldn't understand was that anything would be better than them telling her nothing. Was he Hurt? Captive? Dying? Was he… was he already dead and they just didn't want to tell her because she was too young?

Those were the thoughts that had haunted her for the first year after Jaune's disappearance, right up until she heard that singing voice that she instantly recognized as his and saw the features she knew with every fiber of her being were his despite the fact that every single stupid video had failed to fully capture his face even once because of some stupid glare from that crappy sword her twin was still lugging around for some reason. When he got back she'd make him something a hundred times better and put a tracker in the damn thing so he couldn't run again without her dragging his ass back home!

That was what she'd thought back then, 3 months ago now, thinking that with a lead they could find him without a doubt. But then her parents told her she couldn't go to Mistral with them and then 2 weeks passed, then a month, and then 2 and still nothing. He was gone without a trace.

Again.

Her hands tightened around her weapon as she pushed herself back to her feet letting loose a controlled yet fierce swing with her weapon, shifting it between forms smoothly and with increasing force even as her breaths began to come in desperate gasps and her arms started to burn. She'd be stronger next time. Strong enough that they couldn't just tell her no and leave her behind, despite the fact that she knew him better than anyone else, despite the fact that if anyone could find him it was her.

"I won't let you disappear again… Jaune"

* * *

Lie Ren was currently suffering.

"Well that's our fearless teacher's peerless domestic skill for you, huh Renny?" Nora Valkyrie chirped before tilting her head and looking away from the video she had cued up on her scroll "Wait does singing count as a domestic skill?"

"I don't… think…. so" Ren gasped, trying to catch his breath as pain shot through his arms.

"Well what is it then? Like an extradomestic skill or something? Like a human versus an alien!" the girl chirped.

"It doesn't… work that… way… Nora" the boy continued even as he continued performing pushups, his arms shaking as his heart hammered.

"Ooh! Ooh! Is it an Extra-extra-domestic skill then!?"

"Still no" The boy refuted, struggling to breathe slightly "now could you… please get… off me" the boy rasped "this is…. hard enough…. as it is".

"Hm?" Nora asked from her perch on the boy's back "no can do!" she denied "Mr. K said I was supposed to help you exercise!"

"How… is this… helping?"

"I dunno" Nora replied airily "but I saw it on television so it must be a thing!"

"W…what?" Ren panted.

"Then next comes training with thousand-pound weights and then in 100 times gravity!"

"How would you… even… pull the last… one off?" Ren managed.

"With Gravity Dust of course!" the girl chirped pulling a chuck of shiny black crystal slightly less than the size of her head from… somewhere… "I found some a little while after Jauney left!"

"Gravity dust… doesn't exist… Nora…" Ren replied.

"Really?" Nora looked scandalized momentarily before tossing the 15-ounce chunk of black dust in her hand away with her aura enhanced strength, not even watching as it skipped once on the ground and then skidded into a storm drain, falling into the rapidly flowing water and getting drawn away out towards the ocean. "That's too bad… must've just been a shiny rock then" she pouted, the picture of absolute disappointment.

Sensing her disappointment, the exhausted Ren made to cheer her up "Don't… worry… about-"

Nora suddenly perked up, cutting him off "I guess we'll have to do it the old fashion way then! 10,000 pound weights while training at the top of the tallest mountain in Atlas and doing laps around town on our hands!" she declared standing up and stomping her feet heroically… while still standing on Ren's back.

Ren grunted in pain "my kidney."

"Yes, yes, you can have as many of your weird kidney beans as you want while training!" Nora responded as if making an immense concession "Now let's go!" she declared, kicking off Ren's back towards… somewhere she could get training weights, presumably, as Ren collapsed on the ground.

"Nora…" the boy called with what air remained in his lungs "w-wait"

"Don't be a slow poke Renny!~" the girl called back "hurry it up~!"

The boy who had been saddled with a force of nature on a perpetual sugar rush currently in the form of an 11-year-old girl for a lifelong companion just groaned.

"If I die young… at least I'll get to sleep in" he lamented momentarily before pausing and imagining the equally harsh, if not vastly worse, training his short-term teacher and friend was probably putting himself through at that very moment. Sighing briefly the boy forced himself to his feet "Coming Nora!" he called jogging after her, still panting harshly.

* * *

Jaune Arc was currently freezing to death.

Okay so maybe he was exaggerating somewhat.

* * *

 **«** **Cold Resistance** **»** **is now level 41!**

* * *

But only somewhat.

Yanking himself out of the water with a heave Jaune noted mildly that his health bar had just dropped below 50% and not so mildly that he felt like his blood was -quite literally- turning to ice in his veins.

A number of hostile hisses and growls brought him out of his increasing worry about his blood's state of matter and back to a slightly more immediate concern. Namely the 4 Sabretooth Grimm currently trying (with some success) to murder him. Slipping to the side as one attempt to tear out his jugular Jaune carefully flowed into a flash step in order to dodge, this time only somewhat cracking the ice beneath his feat rather than shattering it outright, as he had the first (second, third, etc.) time he'd attempted to use the movement technique on the surface of a frozen over lake. The numerous holes in the ice he'd made while evading the feline Grimm served as an additional danger to the battle that applied to… just him, unfortunately.

While Grimm could be harmed by extreme cold from Ice Dust and such, they were largely immune to mundane forms of cold, which translated to them being able to ignore temperatures up to 40 degrees below 0 before rapidly becoming vulnerable to it when the temperature started transitioning from holy-shit-my-balls-are-freezing cold to this-is-now-physically-deforming-matter-because-of-extreme-cold-contraction cold. The fact that a Grimm's body had to reach -40 degrees to start experiences negative effects rather than merely being exposed to -40 degree temperatures meant that none but the most severe Atlesian Winters would see any Grimm freezing to death.

Seeing as the current weather was a comfortable -20 degrees, it was unfortunately impossible for any Grimm to reach that point on a day like this. While the water was obviously slightly warmer below the 6 or so inches of Ice covering the lake, being soaked on a day with 30 mile-an-hour winds still sucked like nothing else. In fact, his passive health regeneration (which was up to around 390 points a minute during battle) was being used almost entirely to negate the effects of the extreme cold on his body. Of course, considering that 2 months ago he'd actually been outright losing health simply from the environment during combat, he considered breaking even quite nice, even if it had taken him reaching level 155 and getting «cold resistance» over level 40 before managing to break even.

Not that he was really angry of course, he'd gotten almost 100 points in vitality over course of his time in Atlas, even without spending single stat point from leveling up and discrediting his base +1 per level bonus. Of course, considering he hadn't had a cold resistance skill prior to getting to Atlas, it had been no small undertaking to make that much progress.

' _Jaune… Attention_ ' a not-voice resounded through his… soul? Jaune still wasn't entirely sure about the metaphysics of it all.

"Right" Jaune mumbled drawing upon the full effects of Gamer's mind as the slight delirium and flightiness brought about by the extreme cold faded and he refocused fully on his opponents. While his gamer's body would negate cold damage, it wasn't to the point of fully making Jaune immune to minor effects brought about by cold, and the passive activation of gamer's mind wasn't exactly flawless at repressing it either, considering it wasn't necessarily from an external source as much as it was his body's response to extreme cold.

' _better…_ ' the voice in Jaune's head commented upon his return to proper sanity, before going quiet, apparently exhausted or tired by the action.

"That still takes some getting used to" Jaune mumbled, aware that the voice wasn't a sign of his failing sanity and was instead a sign that Crocea Mors was 'waking up', however slowly, something that had occurred a handful of times in the last 2 months. Pushing his sword's sentience to the side Jaune speculatively at the 4 sabretooth Grimm surrounding him, focusing most of his attention on the highest level one of the group.

 **«Saber-toothed Reaver Lv151»**

With an appearance roughly similar to a species of Saber-tooth cats that had gone extinct some millennia ago, they were ruthless hunters that typically hunted alone, typically as in with exception to Jaune and his apparently overpowered (from a certain perspective) brooding skill. Considering the remaining 3 of the group were in between level 120 and level 140, even the Jaune of 2 months ago would be firmly in the realm of screwed. But now?

… _The muscles in its hind leg shifted slightly, preparing to pounce subtly as the remaining Reavers covered the other escape routes…_

Jaune's foot landed firmly on its skull as he jumped over it, flash stepping without care for the recoil as the technique forced the Grimm's face to crash into the ice harshly, shattering it and leaving the predator with its face momentarily stuck in the ice as a blade tore through its back as Jaune flipped over it with a slash, breaking the encirclement with ease. The other Reavers attacked and Jaune slipped through their attacks smoothly as his blue eyes suddenly blazed with light and he began darting around quickly, following his opponent's movements with apparent desperation even as he managed to return a counter or two, causing minimal damage on his opponents.

Jaune was holding his own against 4 C-rank Grimm in what was almost a deadlocked fight. The battle had been going on for more than an hour now, and considering there'd been half a dozen of the feline Grimm when the fight had started, Jaune had made more than a little progress. While the 2 he'd killed were marginally the weakest of the group, the others had a number of injuries across their forms, somewhat hidden by their thick fur but present none-the-less. Making sure he continued panting heavily as he faced his foes, Jaune was forced to push down a smile as he let the unnatural glow of his eyes peter out for a while, and with the heavy drain of the technique he'd momentarily activated vanishing he felt his aura slowly begin to replenish.

Of course, considering he had nearly 60% of his aura left, he wasn't exactly hurting in that department. It was funny really, that his opponents' impressive display of what would otherwise be a virtue was what was steadily allowing Jaune to gain the upper hand. Patience, as it were, wasn't exactly a good thing to have against an opponent who had reached the point of recovering more than 1.3% of his total aura a minute inside of combat.

While his opponents were smart enough to consider the concept of wearing him down from the cold and exhaustion, they were unfortunately (for them) not smart enough to see through the fact that his 'exhaustion' only seemed to apply in regards to minor negatives towards himself, namely hits that he took without expending aura through his aura shield or eyesight and flash step techniques that dealt negligible damage. That being said, cats were smart enough that they'd probably catch on sooner or later, and start getting the idea that wearing him down was simply letting him slowly recover his aura reserves, hence why he was still waiting while wearing the Grimm down slowly before revealing he was not nearly as tired as he appeared.

His opponents returned to circling him from some distance, clearly still expecting him to grow exhausted or succumb to the cold with time, unaware that the longer they did so the more his aura recovered from his initial all-out fighting and (with his most recent level up in cold resistance) his health recovered point by point. Considering the fact that his Flash step skill had leveled up once during the battle when he began shattering the ice beneath his feet less and less when he kicked off, Jaune was actually the one who stood the most to gain from this prolonged battle.

As the standoff continued and his aura reserves continued ticking towards 70%, Jaune decided to go on the offensive once more, his eyes blazing to life as he darted forward with a vengeance, focusing on the most heavily injured and weakest member of the group, aiming to eliminate it from the fight for good. Momentarily caught off guard by the sudden vigor of their 'exhausted' opponent the remaining Reavers were slow to react as Jaune's blade tore into the beast, carving out its eye and as he blocked its counter smoothly.

As the other Grimm closed in Jaune quickly adjusted his shield, bashing the creature in the face and slipping around it, momentarily letting go of his shield and swinging his blade down on the Grimm's hindleg with both his hands and managing to lop the limb off before he quickly recovered his shield from the air and darted off, escaping the counter from the remaining Grimm as he spun to face them. With the weakest half blinded and hobbling the remaining 3 charged Jaune with a vengeance, only for the boy to bolt forward with even more speed and precision than he'd shown at the beginning of the fight. Dodging the attacks, Jaune used the massive forms of the Grimm as shields from the others' sight as he disengaged, disregarding the 3 battle-ready Grimm and setting once more upon the weakest.

Unable to invert their moment with the ease Jaune could, the combat ready Reavers scrabbled on the ice as they fumbled to turn around, leaving Jaune full leave to finish off the injured Grimm. Disregarding any pretense of exhaustion Jaune bolted forwards towards his remaining opponents, picking them off one after another until only the last and strongest remained.

Injured and facing an opponent with uncertain remaining stamina, the feline turned and fled.

Jaune smirked, drawing his Rifle for the first time in the entire battle and sighting his fleeing opponent, his eyes glowing with increasingly bright ethereal light.

 _It darted to the side with impressive agility dodging the..._

The first round struck its hind-leg

 _Recovering it flung itself in the opposite direction throwing the shooter's aim…_

The second soon followed, then the third and fourth.

 _Hampered by its injuries, it darts to the side, running horizontally from the shooter while zig-zagging to evade…_

The rest of the rifle's magazine is emptied as the Grimm begins to stumble, unable to continue its pace as it slowly succumbs to its injuries and collapses heavily. A few moment later it begins to disintegrate as Jaune smiles lightly, reloading and holstering his weapon as his eyes cease glowing. He quickly closed the vast majority of his popups without reading them, leaving only a few important once to go over quickly. He'd set cold resistance to popup for a few moments even during battle considering how it affected his health loss while fighting, but other skills and gains were still obstructed during combat.

* * *

 **You are now level 159! You have 20 stat points to spend!**

 **«** **Firearms mastery** **»** **is now level 35!**

 **«** **Expert blade mastery** **»** **is now level 45!**

 **«** **Defensive arts** **»** **is now level 47!**

 **«** **Preternatural eyesight** **»** **is now level 44!**

 **«** **Flash step** **»** **is now level 6!**

 **«** **Exhaustion resistance** **»** **is now level 45!**

 **You have gained 3 points of vitality!**

 **You have gained 2 points of Strength!**

 **You have gained 4 points of dexterity!**

 **You have gained 1 point of Intelligence and wisdom!**

 **Based on continued presence of certain behaviors and actions, developing trait has been strengthened and is now closer to manifesting. Depending on the gamer's action, this trait may manifest in the near future.**

* * *

4 more levels, some skill ups, and a few bonus points in his stats. Pretty good for a two-hour long deathmatch in the middle of a subzero winter hell against a half a dozen man-eating monstrosities. It was honestly kind of unfortunate that Saber-toothed Reavers were such a rare Grimm species, at least this close to Atlas, otherwise he'd be able to make daily trips with this kind of reward, for a while anyway. He'd gotten a couple popups like the last one, although he couldn't exactly figure out what tied them together yet, seeing as they'd seemingly been at random after battles.

It was weird thinking that the leader of that pack (pride?) of feline Grimm was actually probably around as strong as the Nuckelavee he'd beaten by luck barely 8 months ago, to say nothing of the other 5 Grimm present this time around. While they weren't pushovers, they were nothing like the overwhelming opponent the Nuckelavee had been back when he'd fought it, although that was more because of him than the Grimm he'd fought.

Dumping his remaining stat points into dexterity, Jaune put off further introspection in favor of moving back towards Atlas, donning a random cloak from his inventory to conceal the fact that he was still dripping wet and beginning the hour-long trek back to civilization.

* * *

Once he had returned to his hotel room (thank god for shady people willing to take an unaccompanied minor's money without asking questions) and taken a shower Jaune allow himself to take a proper look at his status and skills in full for the first time in a while.

Considering he was already aware of what his skill did, he went ahead and disabled the skill descriptions momentarily for ease of viewing.

* * *

 **Name: Jaune Arc**

 **Title: Underdog, Master of Life and Death**

 **Age: 11 years**

 **Aging rate: 50% normal human rate (inapplicable until 18 years of age)**

 **Lv: 159**

 **Health: 29700 [100%]**

 **Health regen: 13.42% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)**

 **Aura: 59700 [100%]**

 **Aura regen: 13.87% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)**

 **Vitality: 460 (1380)**

 **Endurance: 414 (1242)**

 **Strength: 411 (1233)**

 **Dexterity: 561 (1683)**

 **Intelligence: 465 (1395)**

 **Wisdom: 429 (1287)**

 **Stat points: 0**

 **Luck: ?**

 **Charisma: ?**

 **Major skills**

 **«Dance! Dance! Legend» (Unique tier skill) lv 62  
«International man of mystery» (Elite tier skill) lv 60  
«Plague doctor» (Expert tier skill) lv 58  
«Indestructible master of housework» (Unique tier skill) lv 55  
«Legendary Nevermore knight» (Unique tier skill) lv 51  
«Defensive Arts» (Expert tier skill) lv 47  
«Brooding» (Expert tier skill) lv 46  
«Expert Blade mastery» (Expert tier skill) lv 45  
«Light armor creation» (Expert tier skill) lv 45  
«Exhaustion resistance» lv 45  
«Preternatural eyesight» (Expert tier skill) lv 44  
«Advanced reconnaissance» (Expert tier skill) lv 42  
«Cold resistance» lv 41  
«Advanced Engineering» (Advanced tier skill) lv 39  
«Military Tactics» (Advanced tier skill) lv 36  
«Firearms mastery» (Advanced tier skill) lv 35  
«Advanced Aura mastery» (Advanced tier skill) lv 32  
«Aura shield» lv 24  
** **«Unarmed combat mastery» Lv 23** **  
«Aura channeling» lv 22  
** **«Oracle» lv 20  
** **«Rapid recovery» lv 13  
** **«Physical damage resistance» lv 12  
** **«Limit Cut» (advanced tier skill) Lv 11  
** **«Overwhelming» (advanced tier skill) Lv 10** **  
** **«Flash step» (Unique tier skill) lv 6**

* * *

If he was gauging it correctly, then his Dexterity was probably pushing into High C-rank and perhaps even nearing low B-rank, even if the rest of his stats were still resting around Mid C-rank. While this was good -monstrous even, considering his start point- it was still not enough to risk infiltrating the SDC HQ, even with his impressive stealth skills. While it wasn't like he would definitely fail, there was at least a 40% failure margin that he didn't feel the need to chance when further preparation could drop it.

He'd also been foiled on the more technological side of things, not by competence and skilled programmers, but by what he could only assume was laziness.

Atlas's entire network of mechanized units were connected wholesale to the CCT, which meant trying to find a proper direction for hacking a specific group or around a specific topic was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Looking up Schnee through less than legal means, would give him an ungodly list of Schnee assault unit 0001a, Schnee assault unit 0001b, so forth and so on forever. Even if he had the patience and time to shift through the entire list he would have to do so in extremely short intervals to avoid being detected.

While this might seem like a good defense system on Atlas's part, it was more along the lines of there being so many easily hackable yet 'secure' outlets that finding the right one was too difficult. While creating a virus that would hack everything and set every mechanized unit in the entire kingdom under his control and then figuring out what stuck out after that might work, Jaune didn't exactly want to become an international terrorist at this point in his life (or ever, really).

That said, programming something a little subtler might be a valid answer to his issue, particularly considering «Subversive arts» had reached level 60 and ranked up to a higher tier. Although it reconfirmed how shitty of a naming sense his semblance had, his Elite tier stealth skill «International Man of Mystery» had given him an incredible boost to his stealth and hacking skills, even if he'd spent the first month after he'd acquired it having to deliberately force himself to just say "yes" instead of "Yeah baby!" every time he responded to a question. He also now had a mental collection of odd slang he didn't really understand and had committed himself to never use.

He didn't know what it meant, but somehow, he felt certain an 11-year-old should not be using the word Mojo as a descriptor for some part of his personality.

Anyway, while it was somewhat outlandish, creating a virtual intelligence program would help mitigate some of his current manpower issues, seeing as they were some things a computer program would just always be more efficient for than a human. Like going through stupidly large lists for the one option he wanted.

Of course, creating said program was much easier said than done, and it would probably take him months before he trusted it to reliably go through the horrendous list of SDC network outlets within the available timeframe, and that was with him hacking through the firewall. But while the necessary work was a bit too much for a single job V.I. the fact that it could also eventually serve as a pilot for a bullhead or as a hack tool for when he was preoccupied amongst other alternative uses made it more than worth putting in a few hundred work hours. Of course, since doing it all consecutively would drive him insane he'd been interspersing it between other minor jobs and preparatory actions.

Humming softly, Jaune closed his gamer menu and began tapping away at his scroll.

* * *

"Are you certain?" An authoritative voice demanded.

"Y-yes, your grace" a hooded figured responded stutteringly "The information acquired by headmaster Lionheart has been confirmed as irrefutable."

"Interesting… you may go." The voice hummed ponderously.

"Yes, your grace" the hooded figure bowed and quickly left.

"A renegade Arc, huh? That's something you don't see every day… or century." A pause "I wonder if…" Pale flesh with umbral veins contorted into an amused expression as the Queen of the Grimm smiled softly "but what does he seek? Power? Riches? Fame? Or something else?" She mused "Regardless, an Arc has many uses, particularly if they can be reintegrated into the fold after… taking up alternate views."

For a moment, the Queen of the Grimm lost herself in thought before wordless summoning an oddly shaped Grimm to her side.

"Summon young Cinder, I have a mission for her." The Queen paused for a moment "Tell her… she is to go after an interesting little pawn that has appeared on my game board."

"Of course, your grace." A man's voice responded from the transmitter Grimm "I'll send a messenger right away!"

Alone once more, the Queen of the Grimm looked out to the corrupted Ruins that surrounded her base on the dark continent.

"What will you do, dear Ozpin, if one of your ever-loyal families births a traitor? A traitor they will still love as kin and struggle without end to 'save' from my clutches, regardless of his actions? A traitor they would hate and despise you for slaying even if his allegiance was made clear?" Salem laughed softly "The greatest failing of your millennia long allies, so naively believed a strength, will tear them away from you. Their love and loyalty to blood, rendering your past with them water under a great bridge." She laughed again "Whether they come to my banner or simply leave yours, they will never abide or befriend one who slays their kin, dear Ozpin. So what will you do... if I give you no other choice?"

"What will you do… when the unity that is your only hope manifests to ruin you?"

* * *

Standing tall, a serious expression on his normally laidback face, Qrow Branwen stared at his leader and the man he trusted above all others with an expression of disbelief "Are you kidding me Oz?"

The headmaster of Beacon took a sip of coffee before replying simply "I'm afraid not."

Qrow starred at the man for a moment before letting out a sharp sigh and shaking his head in disbelief "Have you told Lilith or Alexander? Or Mordred for that matter, she's been out hunting for the kid damn near nonstop since he vanished."

"I have not."

Qrow starred at Ozpin like he'd grown a second head "Well why the hell not? They're his family, if this kid really has some weird-ass nigh-suicidal disposition, then they have a right to know!" he roared "Dealing with Yang's hotheadedness is bad enough, and that's when Tai and I know where she is. From the sound of it that kid has something a dozen times worse and is running around like he's got more death wishes than he does siblings."

"What would it change?" Ozpin shot back "The second they know they'd go out in full force, completely disregarding political or social consequences and for what? A miniscule increase to the chance they might find him? We both know that mass mobilizations against him aren't going to do anything but force him deeper into the shadows… Particularly in light of that footage you stole from Mistral's black ops." Ozpin shook his head "While they erased everything about why they were after him, we know without a doubt that their best wasn't nearly good enough. Although Mistral has the worst special forces, Jaune still completely overwhelmed them in all aspects when he was 10, Qrow, its far better for him to remain largely unopposed until he's faced with something he simply can't overwhelm than it is to allow him to sharpen his skills by trying to slowly close a noose around him."

Qrow let out a helpless sigh, lost for words momentarily before mumbling "It's a real thing then? This… suicidal adaptive conditioning or whatever the hell it is."

"Yes. It's an irregularity that rarely manifests in a member of the old bloodlines, something that halts conventional growth but drastically accelerates it when the inflicted is in danger of termination." Ozpin replied, "Attempting to predict the growth pattern of someone inflicted by this irregularity is nearly impossible, they grow in days what others do in months, in years what takes most decades."

"Shit" Qrow mumbled "I thought you told Mordred it didn't pose a threat to her brother's safety!"

"It isn't polite to listen in on other's conversations" Ozpin said tiredly.

"Just answer the damn question Oz! now!"

Ozpin sighed heavily, exhaustion visible on his face "I said it wouldn't pose a 'new' threat to her brother's safety." He corrected "and it doesn't, he's either had the irregularity since birth or he doesn't have it at all."

Qrow stared at him in disbelief "That's splitting hairs Oz, you know damn well that explanation wouldn't calm anyone down."

Ozpin sighed again "Yes, and I am prepared to face their anger and accusations once the time comes."

"And when is that?"

"Whenever Jaune comes home, whether by himself or by outside interference" Ozpin stated calmly.

"…outside interference huh?" Qrow mused "So you were serious, you want me to track him down?"

"Yes… with the new fall maiden under our protection, the remaining maidens can wait a few years, but Salem mustn't be allowed to get her hands on Jaune." Ozpin confirmed "His covert skills may be enough to overwhelm Mistral's best with some effort, but your own surpass them by such a large margin that they might as well be toddlers. Sending anyone less than my best option from the get-go would just leave room for him to grow."

"It's really that big of a thing then?" Qrow mumbled.

"Given enough time, people in possession of that irregularity either become S-ranks or die, they don't suffer under the same glass ceiling or limits that most others do, so long as they face sufficiently powerful opponents they grow ever more powerful." Ozpin confirmed "While normally an Arc would never betray or stand against their family, the irregularity can cause a sense of battle lust and euphoria during combat, destructive emotions that I fear Salem may be able to use to sway him to her side." Ozpin explained "Jaune running away from his family for some reason suggests a weaker than normal connection to his family, particularly for an Arc. While I can't be certain, Salem is as charismatic as she his ruthless, and without forewarning or prior understand of her true nature, Jaune might succumb to her influence."

"A rogue Arc… shit that wouldn't end well" Qrow mumbled.

"Indeed. Our only saving grace is that Salem herself is unaware of the disposition, as far as I'm aware, members of the old bloodlines under her rule either haven't had someone born with the irregularity before, or otherwise have culled them due to their apparent lack of talent without realizing their true potential."

"But if she gets the kid…" Qrow trailed off.

"She might figure it out, yes" Ozpin agreed "and her position as ruler of all Grimm would allow her to artificially cultivate someone with that irregularity by concealing her absolute control over the Grimm from them and throwing them into countless 'life or death' battles that are not nearly as risky as they seem."

"Y'know Oz, I'm starting to actually understand why you're trying so hard to keep this secret" Qrow mumbled taking a drink from his flask "But realizing I'm starting to agree with the decision of hiding information about a missing kid from his family is also making me feel like a scumbag".

"Then find him and bring him back, Alexander and Lilith can keep a secret well enough that I don't mind informing them once Jaune is back in their custody."

Qrow grunted, a grimace on his face as he took another long drink from his flask, emptying it this time "It's supposed to be our -my- generation's time to deal with all this..." Qrow mumbled to the centuries old headmaster in front of him "Yet why the hell does it already seem to be falling into the laps of the younger generation? Ruby's got the last pair of silver eyes in existence, Raven's bullshit is sending Yang's attention towards the criminal underground, the new fall maiden is barely 15, and now the youngest Arc -an 11-year-old- has suddenly become a potentially game-changing piece in a global shadow war!" he finished with a roar before an exhausted sigh escaped him "We were supposed to keep this part of the world as far away from the kids as possible, and for a time I thought we were succeeding… but now it seems like there's no stopping their involvement… like all our efforts were worthless."

Ozpin frowned softly "Where we fail, others must pick up the slack" he admitted "we have little control over who does so, nor over the method they use to do so. The only thing we can do is strive to ensure that as little as possible must fall to others and beyond that… to prepare those we can so that if our problems fall to them, it doesn't destroy them."

Qrow grimaced "You're right… I guess" he attempted to take a drink from his empty flask before scowling at the empty container. "I guess I better get started then" he mumbled moving towards the window before pausing "Don't tell Tai, he's better friends with the Arcs than I am, and considering he's still getting over Summer's death… the last thing he needs is to have to keep a secret like that from family friends" Qrow stated bluntly before his form momentarily disappeared, leaving behind a crow that quickly flew from the window.

Ozpin watched empty window for a moment, his face expressionless and tired, before sighing and returning to work "Only time will tell if this is yet another mistake" he lamented.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Crocea Mors is best protection from paparazzi. If this were an anime Crocea would also serve as the source of the convenient light bars used for censorship.**

 **Things are starting to pick up, with Jaune catching both Salem and Ozpin's eye for different reasons. While in reality the concept of Jaune falling to Salem's side considering what he knows and what she has planned is laughable, both Ozpin and Salem have no way of knowing this. Ozpin is aware of Jaune's disposition, having encountered it previously when he first met -redacted- and come to understand that it only manifests in people with certain lineage's (Like the Arc family). On top of this, Jaune is currently using his computer skills to make a V.I. to fulfill various tasks like remote hacking and bullhead piloting and Crocea Mors is slowly reaching the point of 'waking up'.**

 **Also, yes Nora did randomly find a 15-ounce chunk of black dust worth around 100 million Lien only to throw it away like a common pebble and forget it because Ren thought it was worthless. Come on, its Nora, if anyone's going to randomly find the Remnant equivalent of enriched weapon grade uranium just lying around by complete chance it's going to be her.**

… **also, yes if she ever finds out gravity dust really does exist after she gets Magnhild she'll probably go find some more (with all the effort of going to pick up groceries b/c Nora) and then somehow manage to turn Magnhild into an honest to god gravity hammer.**

" **Look Renny! I killed a mountain!"**

 **"** **Nora!"**


	9. Chapter 8: So much for a low profile

Jaune forcibly suppressed the sigh that was attempting to leave his lips, settling for allowing an expression that was halfway between a frown and a silent snarl to settle itself firmly on his face. The past few months in Atlas had been… eventful… although not necessarily in a positive sense.

* * *

While he had managed to get his hands on a bullhead and confirmed his semblance's ability to store it (up to a handy new personal vehicle tab in his menu) his expectations for the quality of said bullhead were only met due to the seller informing him flat out that it would be of poor quality at best before Jaune had even purchased it. As it turned out, while the Atlesian black-market did have a small channel to acquire top level technology and occasionally prototype goods, they were rather distrustful of unknowns and those premium products came at extreme prices.

This was a result of both Atlas's well-known military hard-on and its emphasis on unity and order; which in this case translated to far too many cameras and far to close an eye kept on people's day to day lives for an organized criminal underground to flourish freely, although it was still a fair bit healthier than Atlesian officials would ever care to admit.

While his… activities… back in Mistral had left him rather flush in terms of Lien, he was still an almost complete unknown wearing a somewhat sketchy mask who had occasionally glowing irises that -supposedly- looked like the eyes of a vengeful wraith. Admitting or trying to use the fact that he was an Arc would just explode in his face in that it would either make people convinced he was a plant for the government or send his family right on track to his location.

He had high enough skills to 'acquisition' some of the better tech and gear from some of the underground groups if he so desired, but at the time he had decided that that was a bit too high risk for him to attempt. Unlike back in Mistral, where he'd managed to stow away on a ship to Atlas that had been following the Coast, all naval transportation to and from the Atlesian continent was reliant on 2 ports, one of which was frozen over half the year. With both of said ports closer to the southern end of the continent and nothing worth noting north of it, the number of ships that did anything other than head directly to and from Atlas's major ports could be counted on one hand.

This of course meant that if he wanted to catch a boat ride out of Atlas on short notice, he had no choice but to do so from one of those two ports, which was just short of telling his family his exact location, especially considering his father's connection to General Ironwood. While Airships were also an option, Jaune's family probably had enough favors piled up around Atlas to stall their operation long enough for them to catch up to him, and even as a last resort Jaune was most assuredly not confident in his ability to swim his way to another continent, he'd just probably end up drowning.

…it somewhat worried him that the first follow-up thought he had about that at the time was wondering how his semblance would respond to asphyxiation while underwater. Would running out of oxygen just result in a slow hemorrhage of health? Because in that case it was probably possible for him to eventually reach a high enough health regen to literally just disregard drowning and meander around the seafloor all the way to another continent. Of course, he somehow doubted that marine Grimm would just be content to watch him do so, but then again, a deathmatch at the bottom of the ocean sounded pretty cool. And what about space? Could he eventually reach the point of surviving in a vacuum? Were there space Kaiju Grimm?

'…Something is seriously wrong with me' Jaune had noted at the time 'why am an actually going to test that out later… the water bit, not the space bit' he corrected himself, forcing himself to not add a yet to the last part of his thought.

His continued affronts to common sense aside, Jaune had decided it was best to refrain from any potentially high-profile actions until he had ensured that the Bullhead wouldn't simply give out half way across the ocean the first time a Grimm gave it anything more than a glancing blow. Since his V.I. was still a work in progress he wouldn't be able to defend the bullhead himself mid-air until it was done.

This of course meant that in between his time working on his V.I. Jaune spent most of his time acquiring new parts for his bullhead and slowly bringing it up to a decent standard. Seeing as most criminal groups in Atlas were more or less united against outside threats (a necessity considering Atlesian security protocols) Jaune was unable to target or steal from one of the larger criminal groups without the risk of stirring a hive and drawing immense amounts of attention to himself.

This left him only able to target the handful of radical or fringe groups that fell outside of this protective web, something that severely limited any possible gains from his actions. He had initially felt somewhat guilty in regard to his current target, something that had rather quickly changed as he realized the old white fang was on its last legs, or perhaps already dead.

* * *

'This is far worse than I'd ever imagined'

Jaune didn't know what else to think, dust robberies and vandalism were one thing but this? This was a whole new beast. It was to the extent that he remained frozen in his spot hidden within the rafters of a warehouse watching as the white fang members below him continued with their preparations, with almost all his attention centered on the device set in the center of the room.

A bomb.

Not an improvised explosive or some dust chucked into a container, but a genuine professionally designed high-tech (if not near prototype) explosive that probably had enough power to level a city block.

Jaune knew when and where it would go off, he had already gotten the gist of their plan from another outpost he snuck in and out of unnoticed, but the scale of the explosive was still enough to shock him, worse still because he knew it and the deaths and damage it would cause were nothing more than a distraction to those involved.

The SDC were holding a fair tomorrow afternoon at one of the city's handful of indoor parks for good PR, and the plans he'd stolen from the white fang indicated that a sewer line close to the surface ran directly underneath it, not a conventional security risk but with a bomb like the one here a few feet of soil and concrete wouldn't mean much at all. The explosion(s) and subsequent chaos would serve as a distraction to allow the White fang members to assault the SDC's private party -held on the other side of town- filled with investors, business partners, and -of course- the Schnee family themselves.

While the private party had too much security and focus on it to attack directly from the get-go, the chaos from the bomb going off would be enough to take the spotlight off of the venue and allow the white fang a short window of opportunity where they wouldn't need to worry about hunters or soldiers. This is ignoring the fact that the massive influx of negative emotions would likely force Atlesian high command to divert a considerable number of people to the exterior defenses of Atlas. While this alone was enough to infuriate Jaune almost beyond words the worst thing of all was that there was nothing he could do about it… for the moment anyway.

 **Adam Taurus Lv 189**

 **Corsac Albain Lv 151**

 **Fennec Albain Lv 150**

 **Ilia Amitola Lv 56**

 **Blake Belladonna Lv 63**

Jaune was actually lower level than the strongest white fang member and the other two could probably prove a rough match against him at the moment, fighting all 3 of them plus the assorted mooks (generally between level 50-60) and the mini-boss looking motherfucker leading them (a brute of a fellow sitting at Lv 120) was a bit (okay more than a bit) out of his league at the moment.

It was actually rather surprising that two of the people here were around his age, particularly considering they were actually slightly stronger than the majority of the people there, despite being what was likely less than half the age of most members of the rank and file. That was to say nothing of the fact that the level 189 bull faunus was probably only in his early or mid-twenties or so, considering he physically looked perhaps 19 or 20 and -judging by his level- was probably peak C or low B rank in strength, suggesting a strong aura.

Jaune was broken from his thoughts as one of the two younger white fang members spoke up

"Adam… are you sure there isn't another way?" The stronger of the two children, a cat faunus by the looks of her, spoke out "I mean I don't have anything against targeting the SDC, but the fair is filled with people who have nothing to do with it…."

"Nothing except being content to watch on and benefit as our brethren are worked to death in SDC mines you mean" the apparent leader of the group replied carelessly "the SDC couldn't do what they do if everyone else wasn't content to let it happen." The red-haired bull faunus continued, a spark of contempt slipping into his tone.

"but…" the girl -Blake- made to respond before stopping, looking conflicted and eventually just nodding hesitantly "… if you say so Adam…"

Adam paused momentarily before sighing "I know you don't like it when we kill Blake, but in the end, this will save a lot more people than it harms. If we can take down the entire higher echelon of the SDC and its business partners the whole company will collapse and splinter into several fragmented groups, none of which will be able to exert the same power the SDC can right now through its near monopoly over dust." He preached "Not to mention anyone who would otherwise try would be too afraid now that they've seen what would happen to them if they do. With that gone we can free our brethren from the mines, something that'll save thousands of faunus in mere years and probably tens of thousands over the course of the next few decades. That's more than worth the lives of a few hundred greedy humans."

The girl seemed to remain uncertain before replying "Yeah, you're probably right".

"Indeed, he is" one of the twin faunus who had until then been looking on added "you might have great talent and skill for your age as would be expected from our former leader's daughter, but you still have yet to experience the world enough to understand how things work."

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, of course, one can hardly expect one not even into her teens to have a full grasp on the state of the world. Your father's Naivete -well intentioned as it is- hardly helps in the matter." The other twin commented.

"Everything has a price that must be paid, humanity too must pay the price for oppressing our brethren, as they will continue to do until they cease their affronts." The first twin affirmed.

The girl seemed to curl in on herself slightly as most of the room watched her "Of course" she managed, in what most would see as an 'I get it now' manner (but Jaune could recognize as simple suppression of her own emotions out of nervousness), before attempting to change the topic "But, how did we get all this, I mean the bomb and the other stuff seems a bit out of our reach".

Apparently content with the girl's response, most of the white fang members nearby looked away as Adam replied "From a certain group of benefactors, they didn't ask for much, or rather they did but it was something we'd have done anyway. In exchange for this all they want is Jacques Schnee's head separated from his body, along with a few other individuals we'd want dead anyway." He paused checking the time "we should move, we still need to check over a few other sites before we're ready to go. Corsac, Fennec keep watch over the bomb until it's been set and is ready to detonate remotely."

""Of course, leader Taurus"" the twin faunus agree "We'd advise you to take young Ilia with you though, her camouflage abilities may prove useful to you."

The bull faunus nodded once "Right, let's go" he said signaling before setting off, around a quarter of the rank and file white fang members following along with their apparent leader in addition to the two younger faunus.

Jaune waited for a few minutes after they left before internally sighing and silently checking over his gear once more 'so much for keeping a low profile' the thought shot through his mind as he slipped out of the warehouse and into an isolated alleyway nearby.

While at first glance it might appear that simply getting rid of the bomb would solve most of his issues (no explosion meant no distractions which meant the whole of Atlas coming down on the White fang) but of course, things were not nearly that simple.

For while the large bomb that was steadily being prepared in the center of the warehouse was indeed the most prominent of the explosives that the Fang was using, it was not even close to being the only one. In order to ensure that the attack on the SDC wouldn't stand out too much during the chaos, the Fang had apparently set up countless smaller more rudimentary explosives at points around Atlas, typically targeting specific individual's that had oppressed or hurt Faunus in some manner, as well as certain areas that indirectly assisted in Atlas's defenses which -when destroyed- would force more of the military forces within Atlas to be deployed to make up for their loss.

While common sense might suggest telling Atlesian officials Asap was the best course of action (seeing as it was actually fairly easy to point out the various hidden explosives as evidence) the fact that said officials hadn't already noticed those explosives told him that the white fang (or their supposed benefactors) had likely discovered just how shit Atlesian security was, or otherwise had infiltrated their ranks and knew Atlesian protocol well enough to casually plan and act around it.

Jaune had wanted to scream when he realized that basically everything security related was formulated down to an exact science with literally no variation, which might seem good at first glance but became considerably worse when you realized they only inspected certain areas (vents, maintenance tunnels, etc.) once every 2 months with a schedule that didn't change in the slightest, ever. Which of course meant that if you put a bomb somewhere the day after the inspection they wouldn't find it for 2 bloody months.

' _If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.'_

Or so Sun Tzu had said in his book _'The Art of War'_ which happened to be a downright ancient classic, one of the few to somehow survive the fall of the old kingdoms a millennium ago, and considering its significance Jaune was sure the Atlesian officials and tacticians should have read it…

…And then proceeded to decide that 'knowing one's self' obviously meant it was a good idea to make your entire military structure so god-damn precise and concrete that a 10-year-old (a normal 10-year-old) could probably understand it perfectly from the correct perspective. So, while the Atlesian military might be in a perpetual state of knowing itself, it was also depressingly simple for anyone with some level of tactical acumen to know them too (which to be fair, isn't normally attributed to Grimm). And while the Atlesian military might know itself, the white fang clearly knew itself and its enemy.

It was to Jaune's understanding that Atlas's apparent status of 'for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat' against the fang's apparent status of 'you need not fear the result of a hundred battles' meant that according to status quo Atlas had a 50% chance of getting royally fucked and a 50% chance of a Pyrrhic 'victory' that was much more Pyrrhic than it was victorious.

Which in this case likely translated to fending the White Fang off… after they had already killed all their desired targets and were trying to leave anyway.

Regardless Jaune had a sinking suspicion that if he reported the issue to officials then the leader of the White Fang would probably know before anyone in a real position of power in Atlas and if worst came to worst that homicidal jackass would probably just blow up everything he could anyway even if it wouldn't have the initially desired results.

So, with the Authorities out of the question Jaune had been forced to turn to the only other organized group with a stake in the matter that had already been clearly shown to be less than happy with the Fang's actions, even before this shit show.

Speaking into the microphone he was wearing Jaune spoke mildly "You get all that?" before he unmuted the headset, now free of the risk of Faunus hearing blowing his cover.

He was met with an apparently already half-finished stream of curses "…stupid god-forsaken pieces of inbred, animal fucking, syphilis infested, shit! what the fuck are they thinking!" The man Jaune knew as a rather suave, almost gentlemanly (by appearance at least) thief ranted in overflowing furry.

"So, I take it you believe me now, Roman?" Jaune spoke once the man finally trailed off, his heavy breathing still audible over the microphone.

A few moments later the man responded, his tone tight with now ill-constrained anger "I had a few of the boys check out some of the alleged bomb sites already, the small ones you said the fang already set up, so far we haven't come across a single one without something explosive rigged up to destroy a building or two." The man admitted "So I believed you about that part already and that was bad, but this? You've got to be fucking kidding me, those stupid animals are going to set the entire Atlesian military on a fucking warpath. Atlesian protocol might be easy to exploit day to day but grabbing their attention like this is suicide, if something like this goes through, the absolute best result is the entire fucking underworld getting purged! Everything I and every other competent criminal in Atlas has built up over the years is going to be destroyed and torn to the ground because a bunch of holier-than-thou animals decided to shit everywhere!" he finished with a roar.

"Unless we stop this." Jaune noted.

The man sighed heavily "Stop this? Shit I don't know if we can. Reduce it in scope? Ensure that Atlas's top brass know exactly who did it sure, but stop it?" he paused "But I guess we have to try, if only because a lesser crackdown -for a certain sense of the word lesser- might give me and a few others a chance to pack up what we can and bail out... maybe head to Vale, criminal presence isn't too developed and they don't have much military save for hunters, who are rarely organized if I've heard right."

Jaune paused at that 'Sorry mom and dad, but lesser of two evils and all that' "Alright then, so I'll have your support?"

"And that of every other criminal group I can get in touch with that is even mildly competent, we're going to need the manpower" Roman mumbled "We can't even start defusing the bombs yet either, since that damn bull is apparently running checks still, we'll have to focus on mapping them out for the moment and defuse them in a rush tomorrow once we get everyone we can organized. Can you deal with the larger bomb yourself or will you need backup?"

"Depends, those twin faunus were pretty strong, one on one I'd win" probably "two on one and I'd have to pull a miracle out of my ass, so if they're still guarding it then I'm going to go with a probably no, although I can probably deal with the bomb itself. Time is still a question though, it'd be hard to do that and catch up with the SDC's party crashers."

"Right, I guess me and a little helper of mine will come along with you then." The man mused "I might not be needed, but I still want to take a crack at these damn animals." He grunted.

Jaune hummed softly "Sure, I assume you've at least mastered the basics of stealth then?"

The man scoffed "Of course, and I'd trust my helper to snap your neck without you being able to even respond in that regard, hypothetically of course, so just try and keep up tomorrow."

Jaune snorted slightly at that "Right, anything else you need out of me so everything doesn't fail dramatically or can I be left to my own devices oh great master thief." His own devices, like trying to figure out who the White fang's unknown benefactor was, although he already had his suspicions.

"Your own devices," Roman replied haughtily "Like trying to figure out who the White fang's unknown benefactor is, you mean?"

Jaune froze at that "Please tell me you don't have some type of damn mind reading semblance."

"Don't need one," The thief replied "it was the only factor linking you to actually doing something about all this when you have virtually no stock in the underworld here, especially considering how one of your priorities is catching up with the group going to murder SDC officials. The fact that the Fang was specifically funded under the sole condition of killing Jacques Schnee and some of his close associates by some unknown group suggests a coverup. Said benefactors have gotten what they needed out of the SDC and are now going about the course of destroying the evidence, they probably have someone on the inside that will ensure any paper evidence is 'lost' during the fighting, all while leaving the White Fang to take the blame." The thief paused and Jaune could almost literally hear his smirk "As for you? You are hunting those benefactors and the information Jacques' is hoarding is probably of great use and value to you."

Jaune remained silent.

"Well, how'd I do?" Roman gloated.

"Y'know Roman" Jaune responded "You can be pretty goddamn scary when you want to be, for a man that wears mascara, that is."

"I do not wear" the man began before Jaune cut him off

"L'essence du noir number 5, you left it out on the top of your dresser yesterday" Jaune noted blandly.

Roman's complaints immediately died and he was silent for a moment "You were here yesterday…" he trailed off.

"I had no idea if the Fang's benefactor might have been related to you lot, I mean this whole thing is a death sentence for most underworld groups but the world is filled with idiots so I didn't really want to take the chance." Jaune replied conversationally.

"You were here yesterday…" Roman repeated himself "…In my base…"

"Yes, we've established that" Jaune noted.

"… and neither I nor Neo noticed you." He continued.

"Ah would Neo happen to be that -rather appropriately named now that I think of it- girl with the heterochromatic eyes and multi-colored hair and the fancy umbrella that's been reinforced to block bullets and has what I'm guessing is a hidden blade at the tip?" Jaune asked mildly before continuing without waiting for a reply "Cause I was actually just going to talk to you face to face yesterday but I felt like she'd just try and stab me if I popped out of nowhere in the middle of your base, so I just left and wasted like 12 hours getting into contact with you through the 'proper' illegal channels."

Roman didn't reply for a moment "Why is it always the short, crazy ones with freaky eyes that have the skills of hyped up super-assassins" he asked despairingly.

"Now that's just rude, Heterochromatic eyes aren't that odd, one of my sisters has them in fact, calling them freaky is really small minded, your friend Neo might be fine with it but some people might be genuinely hurt by that Roman." Jaune chided "Oh and by the way, your cane's almost out of dust, you only had about 20% left in your current cartridge, last I checked, which means you have about five full power shots and one-half power shot until you run out, you're going to want to replace that by tomorrow, since the reload time is a bit too long for combat"

Roman was silent, but Jaune could just barely hear mechanical clicking as the man presumably went to check the amount of dust left in his weapon before the sound stopped abruptly as Roman froze. The clicking resumed after a moment before stopping, as Roman presumably returned his cane to normal "Ignoring that… I heard something that is a little hard for me to ignore based on the horrifying implications I'm getting from it." He commented in a strained voice "So against my better judgement, one of your sisters?"

"Yep" Jaune replied easily "I've got seven of them in fact"

A strangled sound came from the other end of the line "They wouldn't happen to be… involved with your line of work, would they?"

Jaune grinned predatorily "Well, of course" he replied, his tone even "It's the family business after all, last we met I was quite a bit behind most of them, skill wise, but well I am the youngest so that's only fair, although don't get me started on mom and dad." Jaune's smirk widened at the all but audible sound of Roman paling "Well if that's everything I've got work to do, bye~"

"Wait a-" Roman began only to be cut off by Jaune hanging up and promptly stowing the scroll he'd been using the headset with into his inventory.

* * *

"The number you have dialed cannot be reached from your calling area." An emotionless voice repeated for the 5th time from Roman's current scroll.

"You're sure he wasn't lying" Roman asked softly for the 10th time.

"You know my semblance as well as I do boss, doesn't matter if it's over the phone or in a video or in writing, I can tell when someone's lying… he wasn't." A man responded, "You know I wouldn't dare lie to you about it -and why would I- that little demon of yours still gives me nightmares, and you can see through me nine times out of ten anyways."

"I know" Roman admitted "I'm just trying to deny the fact that there's some masked freak with stealth skills high enough to kill me in my sleep… and that he's apparently got 7 sisters that are better than he is."

"And his parents"

Roman let out a slight strangled sound "… and his parents… why are you so calm about the fact there's apparently 10 people as good as or better than Neo running around Remnant that no one I know has ever even fucking heard of before? Which for assassins -a group of assassins at that- is a horrifying resume."

"Cause I'm small fry, boss" the man replied "I didn't like it at first, I didn't admit it till you came around to make me, but now? Now I'm actually pretty happy about it." he noted "After all, no way people on that level are going to waste their time on small fry like me. You? With were you want to go? With were you probably will go? Maybe. but not me." he noted "also, why'd you think he told you all that."

Roman sighed "Because frankly, who the fuck is going to believe me?"

"I believe you, boss" the man replied, "But only cause I heard the conversation and my semblance, otherwise I'd say you were off your rocker if you told me that."

"Normally I might get offended, but I'd have told myself the same thing an hour ago." Roman admitted "Now get going, we're pulling out all the stops for this".

"I thought we were going to do what we could to get the most of our assets out of Atlas?"

"Yes, yes, but the thing is we -now more than ever- have to do the best possible job to clean up the white fang's mess before it becomes a problem. If that masked bastard finds out this didn't go the way he wanted it to because we prioritized getting our stuff out -and if we do that, he will know- we'll probably be on his shit list, something we can't really afford for obvious reasons and because of Neo." Roman replied with a grimace "In fact we'll be kind of screwed if we can't manage to earn at least some brownie points, maybe prove ourselves to be a potential asset once we've reestablish in the future, with him before this is over."

The man frowned "I don't get it."

"Which is why you're small fry." Roman noted "Let's put it this way, assassins hate competition in their line of work: The more assassins there are the more idiots find holes in defenses then fuck up anyway, ruining that weakness for a more competent assassin, if there's too many, people start getting more attentive to it, and the fact that the best defense against an assassin is arguably another assassin who can run interference, etc. etc." Roman rambled half to himself "And Neo is good, damn good, especially for her age, given a decade or two I'd reckon she'll leave that masked midget in the dust."

"He seemed pretty young, actually."

Roman waved his hand dismissively "It takes decades to develop skill to that level, he said himself that he could beat one of the Albain brothers one on one but would probably lose to both of them, those two are supposedly high C rank or so, meaning Mr. Mask is probably low B-rank or so. World record for youngest B-rank is 22, for Mask to actually be 12 or whatever like he looks he'd have to have beaten that record by a decade, which is just too stupid to even consider." Roman scoffed "Anyway the point is the largest threat to an assassin is a better assassin, and even if we could deal with Mask the rest of his family would fuck us over."

"Assuming they actually work together, assassins aren't exactly renown family types"

"Normally yeah, your right." Roman agreed "Hell, in most cases, if I heard there were 10 assassins at Neo's level that knew of each other's existence, I'd find a rock to go hide under for the next year or two and when that was up I'd be surprised if more than 2 or 3 were still kicking, but it doesn't look like we're that lucky." Roman sighed "The fact that both his parents are assassins and still alive was the final nail in the coffin killing off that possibility."

"What do you mean?"

Roman scoffed "Really I can't believe you tried to be one of the leaders of Atlas's criminal underground." He shook his head in disbelief "It means his mother has gone through at least 8 pregnancies and is still alive, and his father has slept with said mother at least 8 times and is still alive."

"I kinda get the first part, but you kind of lost me on the second one"

"Weird shit with aura during sex, something about how it requires cooperation between two auras -dormant or not- for reproduction which makes it so your aura shield doesn't work against someone you're screwing, its why so many strong hunters have died cause some chick slits their throat after seducing them" Roman commented idly "Anyway point is his parents apparently trust one another and judging by the fact that his siblings don't appear to be killing each other off that extends to the rest of the family, which is why it's so horrifying."

"Because they aren't gonna kill each other?"

"Because instead of their being 10 assassins as good or better than Neo running around remnant, there are 10 assassins as good or better than Neo running around remnant that are working together." Roman paused for a moment "let that sink into your thick skull for a moment: 10 Neos. Working together."

"Oh, that's bad"

"Yes, it is… why the hell am I even bothering to tell you all this"

"Because you ordered me to continuously give you largely stock answers when you were pissed, shocked, or otherwise unnerved, that you could rant in response to so the sound of your own voice and the familiar feeling of being smarter than some idiot would calm you down."

Roman paused, blinking "oh right… I totally did do that didn't I… huh, go me."

* * *

'What was the purpose of that, Jaune?' A curious voice reverberated in the masked Arc's soul.

'Of what, the thing with Roman now thinking my entire family is comprised of super assassins when by family business I technically meant being a hunter?' Jaune thought (souled? Spirited?) back.

A wordless feeling of confirmation swelled within him in response.

'There's a saying: Better the devil you know than the devil you don't. But the thing is, that also works in reverse, if you're going to try and make sure someone doesn't betray you through fear don't try and make them scared of what they do know, make them scared of what they don't. I'm strong enough to pose a genuine threat to Neo and Roman yes, but the same applies in reverse. They know that and I know that, on the other hand the possibility that even if they kill me at my moment of weakness, someone much better will come along and slaughter them means they likely won't want to deal with the risk of betraying me, so they won't.'

'If they don't believe you?' the voice queried.

'They will' Jaune refuted 'the very fact that Roman took so much of what I said seriously means that that dude I saw with the lie detector semblance was probably with him at the time, otherwise he would've at least shown some level of doubt at some of my claims, but as it is, I technically never lied, hunting -the trade I consider myself to be in- is indeed the family business and -as of the last time I saw them- all of my siblings were indeed better than me, even though I've likely surpassed all but Mordred by this point.'

'I suppose it isn't even really a falsity, considering that if they did betray and kill you I would likely find my way into your father's possession next and inform him, now that I'm awake, which would indeed likely lead to their bloody drawn out and violent deaths as they screamed for mercy that would never come, knowing your line's tendencies towards those who slay their family members, anyway' the voice acquiesced.

Jaune paused at that for a moment 'That was somehow both slightly disturbing and oddly reassuring, thanks Crocea.'

'Of course, dear partner' The spirit of his sword replied, its soul tinted the sound of happiness.

Jaune rubbed his forehead slightly as a headache began to grow.

'It appears you are still not yet able to endure prolonged spiritual conversation, I shall allow you to recover now, my apologies.' Crocea Mors apologized.

'Don't worry about, it's something to work on in the future I guess, although I'm afraid I've got some rather pressing issues at the moment.' Jaune noted as the _distance_ between him and his sword _widened_ somewhat gently breaking their direct contact for the moment. Placing his hand on the pommel of his sheathed sword Jaune smiled slightly as a small pulse of warmth from the blade pushed away the chill of Atlesian weather for a few moments.

"Whelp," Jaune mumbled to himself "Back to work I guess" The possibility that the White Fang's benefactors were part of or connected to Rook was too real to ignore, and even if that wasn't the case he still needed Jacques Schnee alive in order to get whatever he probably had on Rook, not to mention how the SDC's collapse would likely make any trail related to the Dust itself get buried under a tumulus market. The reality of the situation setting in fully now Jaune shook his head slightly, undergoing a moment of fierce introspection.

"This is my life: I have to go save the man who is possibly the biggest douchebag in the universe for the good of mankind… why does this somehow not surprise me?"

* * *

"Unsurprisingly, he's definitely not in Vale" Qrow Branwen mumbled to himself as he walked towards the outskirts of city. "He's not stupid enough to still be in Mistral after being spotted there recently, and my friends in the city haven't seen anything either… which leaves Atlas and Vacuo"

Pausing to take a drink from his flask Qrow sighed "Okay let's see, I've got dozens of contacts in Vacuo, plenty of friends, and the headmaster of Shade academy understands that sometimes secrets need to be kept even from allies and that helping another member of the inner circle without asking questions is necessary at times." He took another drink "On the other hand we have Atlas, everyone has a stick up their ass, the criminal underworld is tight lipped as hell, Jimmy doesn't trust me as far as he could throw an airship and would probably tell Alexander the second he heard a damn thing about anything related to the kid even if I asked him not too…"

He took another sip from his flask.

"Okay so the kid's in Atlas" Qrow nodded sagely, setting off without a second thought.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Recovery/buff/powerup Items: yes or no?**

 **While I stand by my assurance that there won't be random full recovery potions or item drops from Grimm, Jaune's semblance -as I have described its mechanics- does leave room for some lesser items to be somewhat feasible. This process would function as allowing Jaune to momentarily borrow the existence or traits of something through an item relating to it. This would be something like a feather from a famously fast bird being able to provide Jaune with a temporary boost to DEX in the form of a flat bonus (typically) added after Aura bonus. This would only function a single time per item and, as the item itself (in this case the feather) is just functioning to allow Jaune to draw on the 'speed' from the bird it came from, using it a single time would serve to expend the available excess 'speed' from the bird. Simply put, plucking all of a bird's feathers would give only 1 usable item and a bunch of feathers, while plucking one feather from it would give the usable item.**

 **As far as recovery items go, these would be less 'provides a recovery effect' and more 'removes impediments to body/aura healing/recovering itself effects'. An example of this would be something that temporarily negates or at least reduces the 90% debuff to health and aura recovery rates during combat by suppressing or influencing certain body functions. The 90% debuff itself was something I implemented both to combat perpetually excessive regen and due to considering how the human body ceases or slows certain non-vital processes (like digestion) when a fight or flight response is triggered in order to have more available energy to focus on escaping or fighting. While for most people, removing this would make them more easily exhausted while fighting, Jaune's Gamer semblance makes this a nonfactor, meaning that all the temporary removal of the 90% debuff would do is accelerate his health and aura recovery.**

 **Lastly, the concept of consumables that provide a permanent small boost to stats might be acceptable following the rules of Jaune's semblance, as it would be incorporating that consumable item into Jaune physically (cause he ate it) and through that his semblance would let him gain some benefits from its existence conjoining with his. The items in this category would be single use per specific type/source and might already have some affect upon consuming it even for people without Jaune's semblance, with Jaune's semblance simply acting to enhance the effect. This would be something like water from a natural spring located at a spiritually powerful location, fruit from a famous or rare plant, etc. etc. The water from that spring might -for a normal person- minorly expand their aura reserves or something, but for Jaune his semblance would actively process it and boost the effect.**

 **While I'm not putting this to a vote, I would like to hear opinions regarding it as I'm still up in the air about it and won't be implementing it (if I do end up doing so) for some time, as it would be something Jaune unlocks as a result of another tier up in aura mastery (which also functions as semblance mastery) which is still a way off.**

 **This is mostly a result of me trying think of methods of having Jaune's semblance grow (as they apparently do as per canon) without upsetting the -quite delicate- balance preventing Jaune from being OP (compared to his opponents at the time at least, he's already OP compared to his age group)**

 _ **Possible Omake idea**_

 **Although I don't really have any structured idea of how to write it properly at the moment, I've been tempted to try and write a few non-canon future Omakes about after Jaune saves Vale surrounding a certain premise. It's basically a 'dating cat woman' scenario between LegendaryNevermoreKnight!Jaune & Cinder (who makes up her own cliché supervillain identity that everyone except Salem, Ozpin, and Normal!Jaune think is cool -if evil- for some unfathomable reason) with Salem noticing numerous hints to the fact that the female supervillain is Cinder yet remaining in intense denial and the rest of her group being somehow incapable of putting together obvious clues to figure out the relationship between Cinder and her alter ego (except for one random underling who is completely ignored by everyone).**

 **On the other side of the table Ozpin has realized Jaune is the Legendary Nevermore Knight but despite pointing out numerous pieces of evidence supporting this and the fact that they trust him about literally anything else, no one (not even Glynda) within his inner circle believes him, saying he's just sleep deprived and needs more coffee (which he can't refute properly because, well, more coffee).**

 **Meanwhile Jaune is stuck in the middle, drowning in shame and embarrassment at his own actions, seeing as his title has reached the level that it nulls any embarrassment or shame regarding his actions while he is the Legendary Nevermore Knight, meaning he only feels the humiliation and self-loathing in regards to his actions after he's already done them, all while he is in a semi-relationship with an evil chick he can't seem to stop trying (with considerable success) to seduce while in his alter ego.**

 **Even more trying to Salem and Ozpin's sanity is the fact that their subordinates only seem to act incompetent in regards to Jaune and Cinder's alter egos and are completely normal (For their standard of normal anyway) and competent in regards to literally anything else. Little do they know that the fame level of Jaune's title has reached counter-stop, creating a reality warping compulsion powered by the entire human race so strong that when the title is equipped it effectively forces everyone below S-rank to act like characters out of a Sentai show and even while the title isn't equipped makes them incapable of realizing Jaune's (and, by relation, Cinder's) secret identity no matter how flimsy their disguises or how blatant the clues.**

 **Jaune has gotten to the point where not equipping the title (even when he could technically escape momentarily to do so) does not count as holding back because he considers it a fate** **Worse than death.** **And will only ever use it if other people would otherwise be in danger and there isn't an alternative.**

 **As I mentioned this would all be in the form of Omakes not canon to the main storyline considering how much it would interfere with any level of seriousness within the story. Even if I don't end up writing it, I hope the idea got a laugh out of a few of you, in which case I will feel the hours I wasted pondering this when I honestly should've been studying worthwhile :)**


	10. Chapter 9: Ready or not

Jaune sighed softly as he looked over his status one last time, grimacing a bit as he did so.

* * *

 **Name: Jaune Arc**

 **Title: Underdog, Master of Life and Death**

 **Age: 11 years**

 **Aging rate: 48.75% normal human rate (inapplicable until 18 years of age)**

 **Lv: 165**

 **Health: 33610 [100%]**

 **Health regen: 15.36% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)**

 **Aura: 64920 [100%]**

 **Aura regen: 15.73% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)**

 **Vitality: 526 (1610)**

 **Endurance: 469 (1436)**

 **Strength: 497 (1522)**

 **Dexterity: 621 (1901)**

 **Intelligence: 521 (1596)**

 **Wisdom: 481 (1473)**

 **Stat points: 0**

 **Luck: ?**

 **Charisma: ?**

* * *

While his stats had apparently increased at a bloated rate over the course of the last 6 levels, Jaune was well aware this was a rather hollow increase, for the most part. While his Aura mastery leveling up by 1 had been a portion of the spike, the largest contribution came from Crocea Mors passing another threshold in aura resonance, raising the rank of its User strengthening somewhat and increasing the blade's bonus from a +40 bonus to all base stats up to a +80 bonus, which -after his aura modifier- basically translated to an additional 120 points in all of his stats.

Unfortunately, he was only just barely passed the threshold at which he acquired this bonus, meaning that an aura over-limit of any level would undoubtedly drop Crocea's reserves back below said threshold, effectively dropping his stats by around 20 levels worth of stat points, on top of the fact that his blade's stats would drop along with it.

He was at the point (thanks to the now awake Crocea's help) that he could more or less control smaller aura over-limits, although it was limited to tiny bursts (which was more akin to a somewhat overpowered aura infusion) or everything (which might cause damage comparable to the bomb the fang had planted and simultaneously send him into a near death state at best), the latter of which was useless if he hadn't already dealt with nearly everything and the former having the aforementioned consequences of dropping his stat points drastically for a single empowered attack. Given a few more days, Jaune would've been able to build up enough additional Aura within his blade to use a handful of bursts, but a few days were far more than he had at this point.

While there were only 4 opponents (that he knew of, at least) working with the White Fang that posed a real threat to Jaune (Adam, the Albain twins, and to a much lesser extent the Lieutenant) he remained worried simply because of how confident Adam was about the operation. The White Fang Knew that Jacques Schnee would be accompanied by 2 of the B-rank combatants he'd hired (the 2 A-rankers and handful of other B-rankers were apparently deployed to guard certain shipments and oversee business operations elsewhere) yet Adam and the level 120 lieutenant were apparently the only ones (discounting the rank and file) that would partake in the assault on the SDC head. This was apparently not an issue as Adam professed to having an 'Ace in the hole' that he said he'd unveil just before the beginning of the operation.

While Jaune's Dexterity could be considered well into low B-rank with Crocea mors' increased enhancement, the rest of his stats were still High to Peak C-rank. Use of his now level 12 **«Limit Cut»** skill could boost his physical stats by around 15%, but the cost of that was his stamina depleting at nearly fourfold its normal rate alongside eventual health loss over time, and even that boost only brought his weaker physical stats up to low B-rank at best and his Dexterity to slightly below Mid B-rank. His skill levels were somewhat higher, fortunately, with both his swordsmanship and shield mastery pushing into the upper 40s as expert tier skills that -augmented by his preternatural eyesight's pseudo precognition and Crocea mors' supernatural sharpness and balance- meant he didn't fall behind on that front.

In fact, if it was just a matter of fighting Adam Taurus in an open confrontation Jaune was quite optimistic about his odds, even if the terrorist was a good 24 levels above him. The problem was that it wasn't that simple and that Adam was apparently confident he could defeat or bypass 2 B-ranks, specifically 1 Mid B-rank and one high B-rank, both of which were equipped with top of the line gear from the SDC. While it was possible that Adam was just an arrogant douche getting in over his head, the sheer amount of planning and effort put into this horror show of an operation put it falling apart over one man's arrogance into the realm of a near impossibility, particularly considering Adam had been on an international wanted list for the last year and a half and had all but assuredly dodged opponents he wasn't able to defeat numerous times, suggesting some awareness of his own ability and limits.

The Fang had been given outright terrifyingly precise information regarding the SDC's security systems and who would be present at the party by their benefactor, up to and including patrol routes, paladin numbers, and a full bio on any prospective attendee with even a shred of aura available to them. Jaune's suspicions that Rook was their benefactor had only heightened, especially when he learned that in the preceding days multiple A-rank hunters had been called on an emergency mission en mass in order to respond to a surge of high level Grimm drawn towards a wave of negative emotions from a satellite town around an hour from Atlas by bullhead.

While it might seem like bad luck, the rush of negative emotions within that satellite town was the result of 'bureaucratic errors' that somehow left the entire town without any power or method of communicating for days on end as people froze to death only for said communication error to be resolved just in time to force immediate deployment of whatever high-level hunters were available, i.e. the A-ranks kept in reserve, in order to ensure that the town wasn't overrun which would only lead to further panic. While none of Atlas' A-ranks had been killed or even significantly wounded descriptions of the fight suggested they had burned through a lot of aura culling the horde -undermanned as they were- and Jaune had even seen an image on the dust net of James Ironwood looking downright exhausted when he'd returned. It had reminded Jaune of just how damn lucky he was that his aura regenerated so quickly, and that others with immense reserves required upwards to entire weeks to fully recover after expending their reserves.

To give a short overview of all this; The majority of the A-rank combatants in Atlas were low on aura just before what would potentially be the largest terrorist attack in decades because of 'bureaucratic errors'.

Considering the numbers Jaune had crunched, the required specs of an airship capable of generating enough power to quickly detonate the prospective black dust bomb after it passed the 70% threshold limited it to super-prototype Atlesian airships now, and what would presumably be top of the line ones 4 and a halfish years from now when the black dust bomb would have originally detonated in Vale. The apparent ability to go about 'Misplacing' a top of the line airship for a long enough period of time to install a specialized explosive and then bring it over to Vale before anyone even thought to ask, 'where is that multi-billion lien shiny again?' screamed of a top-level executive suffering from similar 'bureaucratic errors' aka setting the whole thing up and probably framing some poor pencil pusher for the whole thing and getting away scot free.

Seeing as some poor (and unsurprisingly low ranking) bastard had gotten the blame for the current mishap, Jaune was fairly certain that Rook's prospective rotten executive had set up this little mess and gotten away clean. Of course, perhaps he was just being naïve hoping that only one high executive was corrupt enough to let hundreds or thousands of people die for personal gain and this had nothing to do with Rook at all, is what he be tempted to say if the movement of Grimm hadn't been the way it was. Which is to say that the high-ranking Grimm that would've slaughtered the settlement in minutes (removing the need for a rapid response) were both just slow enough that the A-ranks could reach the settlement if they left immediately and just fast enough that they couldn't wait to call back some B-ranks from various missions lest the settlement be overrun. Additionally, while the Grimm didn't arrive all at once like they did in Kuroyuri, almost all of the stronger ones had been part of the first wave, with only lower level Grimm remaining by the time the other hunters arrived.

Considering the rest of Atlesian security protocols, it was sadly unsurprising to Jaune that it was likely possible to do a merry little jig around morality and shove off the blame to someone else with a little creative bookkeeping, so to speak.

Regardless the point was that Rook (and Jaune was pretty damn sure it was them) was comprised of (or at least lead by) a bunch of crafty motherfuckers, and they wouldn't let what was now little more than a gang screw up their careful planning. If Adam said he had an Ace in the hole, then he had an ace in the hole. Not because of his own merit or because he was well prepared, but because Rook wouldn't let it be otherwise.

This meant that Adam was confident he could overwhelm two B-rank hunters considerably stronger than Jaune and that Jaune somehow had to deal with something those 2 B-rank hunters couldn't if he didn't want his chances of finding Rook to plummet, and that's not even mentioning the fact that he had to deal with the fang's bomb beforehand, which would likely mean overwhelming 2 peak C-rank combatants.

While he'd sort of strong armed both Roman Torchwick and his accomplice Neo, the two of them were probably an even match for the Albain twins at best, and they wouldn't be the three musketeers by any sense of the phrase. If things went badly they'd probably ditch him, having someone out for your head -no matter how dangerous- was definitely the lesser evil compared to losing your head, meaning that if it was a life or death situation he couldn't count on them to keep fighting.

Yet as much as he'd like to try and improve his odds somehow, the whole thing was going down in less than 2 hours and anything he could possibly do wouldn't take effect in time for it matter by now. He simply had to accept the shitty odds and do the best he could with them, something that was an annoyingly familiar thing for him, to be honest.

He had received one more boon a short while ago in the form of the trait he had been told was close to manifesting finally appearing, something that had had happened back when he was level 163, but although it had considerable future benefits and some immediate ones, it also ended up raising quite a few questions; Namely if he was tricking Roman as much as he thought he was.

* * *

 **Assassin's Lineage: Although previously buried under the Heroic Lineage inherent to the Arc clan, your continuous usage of covert skills and abilities has resulted in your aura and semblance bringing this disposition to the surface and out of dormancy. You are a descendent of a family of assassins so skilled that few knew they ever existed; although, when exactly such individuals intermixed with the Arc clan is unknown to you. +2 Dexterity and Endurance per level. Increases the potency and growth rate of all stealth based skills by 20%.**

* * *

While it had been momentarily jarring to realize that at least some of his ancestors were at some point hired killers, it had been something Jaune had come to accept rather quickly. His own progression rate in regards to covert skills had been nothing short of insane, even accounting for his semblance, and it actually made sense that he'd inherited the talent for it somewhere, even if said talent hadn't been entirely manifested until now. It was unfortunate that the stat bonuses didn't apply retroactively, but an additional 2 dexterity and endurance each level from now on was still a substantial boost, even if it didn't really help him in his current situation.

Pulling himself out of his introspection Jaune pulled his mask on and slipped from the shadows revealing himself to Roman and the leaders of the various criminal groups Roman had recruited to try and 'clean up the white fang's shit' as the thief had so eloquently put it.

'Well' Jaune mused to himself 'its show time, I guess'.

* * *

"This can't be happening" A gray haired man groaned for the fourth time "So much work down the fucking drain." He complained.

"So you've said, so I know, so quit complaining about it and use whatever braincells you can scrape together to work towards stopping this as best we can." Roman Torchwick shot back in aggravation "as I've told you half a dozen times, if this shit storm goes out in full force Atlesian officials are going to be given a bloody blank check to do whatever the fuck they want to weed out everything not shiny and law abiding, rights be damned, and people are going to be far too scared to complain about it."

The man growled before quieting down, after which another man -the leader of a mid-sized gang- spoke up "Where's that short bastard that told you about this shit show anyway, did he ditch us and leave?" the man complained "Cause if he did I swear ill hunt him down and gank him after this."

Neo grinned sadistically as the man spoke before holding one finger up and twirling it around.

"What the hell does that mean?"

Roman sighed looking over the man's shoulder "it means turn around, that 'short bastard' is-"

"Behind you" a new voice chimed in, causing the man to jump and spin around, finding himself faced with a pair of apathetic blue eyes looking at him from between his two guards who also jumped in shock at the figure's sudden disappearance.

"Fun fact" Roman smiled "That short bastard is actually an assassin on par with Neo and I'd hazard a guess that he's been in the room with us since the meeting began"

"I've been here long enough" Jaune said noncommittally slipping past the two stunned guards at a sedated pace, his movements such that half the room momentarily lost sight of him as he walked around the table to an empty spot. As Jaune causally took a seat, his manner calm and unruffled like he owned the place, the rest of the table -save Roman and Neo- focused on him with a mixture of shock and awe.

"A semblance!?" the man who had seconds ago threaten to gank Jaune accused, attempting to hide his fear with bluster.

"No" cut off an interested looking young woman with purple hair and piercing golden-yellow eyes "Skill." She stated with surety "He didn't use a scrap of aura, so it wasn't a semblance, besides, I've seen someone move like that before -Once- although theirs was a bit more refined than yours." She noted directing the last part at Jaune, pausing for a minute in thought "Funnily enough, she was blonde too, although I never caught her name."

Jaune let off an amused huff "Funny indeed." He replied neutrally, mildly noting Roman paling slightly out of the corner of his eye and deciding to credit this one to his Luck stat and simply appreciate the fact that his story had been backed up by coincidental evidence "but not a pressing issue at the moment, considering our current time constraints."

The woman huffed "Fair enough" she acquiesced "Also," she began shifting her attention to another target "Roman I'm totally calling bullshit on the little wolf over here only being on par with your little ice cream demon, cause either she's been holding back or you're spewing shit."

Jaune let out a low laugh "From what I can tell about him from the few weeks I've known of him, your best guess is probably a bit of both."

Roman scoffed "I'm glad our time together has been so special to you that it already feels like we've known each other for weeks now, considering we met yesterday." He shot back, clearly having noticed that fact that Jaune and the woman were quickly gaining control over the meeting.

Jaune snorted "No Roman, you met me yesterday" he corrected "I met you two weeks ago during that dust heist of yours when I was seeing if you'd finally cross the line on how much you could steal at a time -everyone knows you've been toeing that line for months- so I could get away with stealing your stuff without the rest of the Atlesian underworld cutting me off." Jaune sighed morosely "While I was sad at the time, I suppose it was a good thing you didn't take that last box of Grade 10 fire dust you found on that bullhead. That stuff is expensive and it would've put you and yours way over the cost limit." He finished mildly.

The woman snorted at that "He almost took it didn't he."

"He must've stared at it conflictedly like a child choosing between two puppies for fifteen minutes before leaving it behind" Jaune confirmed mildly "Well, regardless that was how I knew enough about him that I figured he'd be able to organize a meeting like this, at least."

Roman grimaced "Yes, yes, yes" He chided, unsuccessfully -in the case of Jaune and the woman at least- attempting to distract from his somewhat pale visage "Now that you kiddies are done gossiping let's get back to the meat of the matter."

"Indeed," Jaune smoothly cut him off "speaking of which Taurus says he's got a trump card, one which he believes is enough to get them by the 2 B-rankers the SDC head has guarding him -and yes, the Fang do know that- and while I know most of you won't be heading anywhere near that little catastrophe, there's no guarantee it is anything resembling precise in application." The surrounding criminals nodded at this as Jaune gave it a moment to sink in before he continued "Also, speaking of cats, bull-boy's little apprentice seems to be one Blake Belladonna -yes that Belladonna- and while she did appear adverse to this little shit-storm she's still here and part of it, if only due to peer pressure. While Menageries' chieftain has cut ties with the fang, his daughter being killed will likely make any reservations he has towards blowing people up go away." Jaune paused again before reiterating "For those of you who don't understand context clues; Don't kill the kitty or else the Fang will probably swell in numbers with Ghira's -Who is the chieftain of Menagerie and the aforementioned kitty's father, for those of you who are idiots- support."

The room exploded with chatter at this, many of the criminals looking alarmed at the prospect of accidentally making what amounted to a kingdom's leader an enemy, before the woman Jaune had been talking with earlier took charge again.

The golden eyed woman's voice cut through the chatter with ease "Why would she even be here? You'd think her father would've dragged her back home" she noted directing her question to Jaune.

Jaune shrugged "The problem about giving up control of a massive global organization, is that you're no longer in charge of a massive global organization" he noted dully "He probably hasn't seen hide nor hair of his daughter since he stepped down, I can hardly see the current leaders being enthusiastic about losing their only tie to the man. As for the girl, well, she's, what 11? They're probably keeping her compliant through peer pressure and what remains of her positive feelings for the fang from when she was younger. To be honest I don't think the fang's higher ups particularly care if she lives or dies though, so long as she doesn't leave, it's the only reason I can find for them putting her on an operation like this."

The woman raised a single eyebrow "Well they need manpower, don't they."

Jaune nodded "Yes but from what I can tell the girl's only about on par with the average member of the rank and file, perhaps a bit above. From another perspective she's already that good even though she's only 11, you don't waste that kind of talent for the future by using her as a mook when she's young." He shrugged "It's pretty brutal, but I think their high command would prefer it if she died, since it would probably bring her father and all the influence he has back behind them, so long as they play her death off in a certain manner, grief can blind even the wisest of men after all."

The woman grimaced "Yeah, I know I'm a criminal myself and all but that's a little…"

"Fucked up?" Jaune replied "Yeah, to be honest I'm thinking of snatching her up as this mess dies down and then dumping her back at her parents' house." He shrugged "Should be worth a favor or two, and I get to go to sleep at night with a light heart" he finished semi-sarcastically.

The woman snorted at that "Wow, you're a real hero, aren't yah little wolf." she drawled with amused sarcasm.

Jaune huffed in amusement "Yep, I'm a regular old cannibalistic wolf in sheep's clothing." He joked before growing serious again "We have about an hour and forty minutes now before the explosives are set to detonate, Taurus should set off for his position near the SDC party in about twenty minutes after which he's ordered the rest of the fang to enact radio silence until the operation starts, I went ahead and tinkered with their main communications systems so that I can make that less an order and more a technical absolute at the push of a button. Taurus' infiltration point is an old disused maintenance tunnel, so he'll be far and away from any of the secondary bomb sites, meaning we have about an hour and twenty minutes to disarm as many of the explosives as we can without Taurus noticing anything and detonating them manually. I assume you all have your people in their places by now, right?"

Roman jumped at the chance to try and regain control of the meeting "Yes, I've already arranged that while you were snooping around for scraps throughout those animal's dens, no thanks to you." Jaune scoffed in amusement as Roman forged on "There's a reason you had to come to me to get this whole thing done after all, Mr. Zero-underworld contacts."

"It's a leadership skill called delegation, Roman, I tell you things you're wholly incapable of noticing by yourself -such as this whole shit show, for example- then I tell you what to do and you deal with the nitty gritty details." Jaune fired back mildly "Now if you're done trying to jockey for influence that really doesn't matter at the moment, we have work to do. Unless, that is, you're backing out of dealing with the Albain twins to go smoke Cigars and reapply your mascara?"

"I do not wea-" Roman snarled before cutting off as Jaune held up an oddly familiar container of mascara "Hey that's mine! Do you know how expensive tha-" Roman froze, numbly catching the container as Jaune tossed it to him.

"Did you seriously just let me Looney-tune you?" Jaune drawled "Cause like seriously that shit's not supposed to work on real people."

Roman simply looked mortified mouthing something in horror for a few more moments before mechanically pocketing his make-up and simply glaring at the rest of the room.

"Well now that that little show is over, Roman meet up with me at the entrance to the sewers nearest to the primary bomb site within twenty minutes, I've got a few things to do including making sure Taurus is in his hole before I cut his communications, lest he notice its actually disabled rather than just in a state of radio silence." At this Jaune stood up, cutting off his presence and quickly disappearing from sight.

* * *

After sending of some of my supposed subordinates to their assignment I had managed to slip off and reconnect with the rest of my unit for a few moments, twirling my purple hair in my hand, I briefed my second in command on what new information the masked assassin had brought forth to the meeting "…And that's everything I know for the moment, have you managed to clear anyone else to join the op or are we still reliant on the underworld groups for the heavy lifting?"

"Sorry ma'am, but that assassin that uncovered this is definitely correct in that it's an inside job by someone of a relatively high ranking. If even one of the people in on it learns we know what's going to happen the amount of civilian casualties and damage will be calamitous, the only ones we might be able to trust are a few of the A-ranks and they're still tired and low on aura from the disaster with that satellite settlement."

My second in command's reply was expected, if still disappointing. Frowning somewhat at the situation, I sighed softly and gave out my last orders to the rest of my unit "Shit, well stick to the plan then, I'll do what I can from this end." I finished before disconnecting my hidden headpiece's connection and straightening up, shifting to move before a familiar voice spoke up from directly behind me, freezing the blood in my veins momentarily before I spun around.

"No luck on your end then, Miss black ops commander?" The blonde assassin wearing a wolf themed mask drawled as he met my gaze with bored blue eyes that seemed to stare straight through me.

"H-how?" I couldn't help but stutter, stunned at the fact that I'd apparently been outed.

* * *

' _Because my semblance is bullshit, that's how'_ I mused to myself in response to the woman's stuttered question.

* * *

 **Atlesian Black Ops Commander, Hidden Blade, Infiltrator  
Yoruichi Shihōin  
Lv 170**

* * *

Seeing as the truth was out of the question and the woman was still waiting for an answer, I resorted to the good old standby of sarcasm and half-truths "Because I'm better at this that you" probably "And the fact that I was semi-desperately holding onto the hope that someone in Atlas's command structure was actually competent, leading to me looking into what I could of Atlas's black ops division a bit yesterday and -low and behold- competent information compartmentalization, oh for small miracles."

The woman who I'd spent most of the previous meeting conversing with seemed to recover a bit at my comment, although she seemed slightly unnerved at the implication that I'd be able to figure out something significant in less than a day, which I had by virtue of my level 60 elite tier stealth skill enhanced by my trait and title boosts, but she still managed to hold her composure quite well "What do you want." She shot back, clearly having realized that there would have been no reason for me to reveal my knowledge of her identity if I didn't want something.

"To warn you that someone at the very top is at the core of this, and that they've probably already completely washed their hands of everything and will get away with it this time, as they have before." I spoke bluntly, to her visible shock.

"What do you mean by that?"

I sighed before lifting up 1 finger "Let's put it this way, the information the fang has been given on the Atlesian security systems is of such accuracy and spread that it is basically everything there is to know." I lifted up a second finger "days prior to what is probably the largest terrorist attack in decades, all on-station A-rank hunters associated with the Atlesian military are forced to almost entirely exhaust themselves due to bureaucratic errors turning an entire satellite town into Grimm Bait." You pause "see where I'm going with this?"

A conflicted looked crossed her face before she refuted "There's no evidence that its anything more than bad luck, what your saying is that a councilman or general at the very least is working with terrorists and getting away with it, someone would have noticed it."

I shrugged "I suppose I can't blame you for thinking that, but remember two things; two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead, and…" I trailed off momentarily, turning and starting to leave as I did so "That Once is chance, Twice is coincidence, and Three times is enemy action" I paused again before calling out over my shoulder one last time as I left the alleyway "So even if you don't believe me now, try and keep your head down and your eyes open for that 3rd time… or a lot of people might suffer for it."

With those parting words I shot off towards my meeting point with Roman and Neo, I had work to do after all.

* * *

It had been 5 minutes since I had spoken to the Atlesian black ops commander and 10 since I had cut off the fang's coms, having confirmed that Taurus had ordered the beginning of radio silence until the op. While I wasn't too optimistic, I hoped that having at least 1 member of the Atlesian special forces keeping an eye out for things might help avert the airship being stolen -unlikely as that was- but the major reason I had attempted to make the black ops commander keep her eyes open was because I hoped she could at least figure out who pulled the trigger on the misplacement of the airship after it was stolen.

While the woman was only level 170 at this point, she was also only 24, meaning that although she was a bit behind my elder sister (who was B-rank at that point) she was still quite a bit faster than most in terms of progress, to say nothing of the fact that she was actually a black ops commander at that age. The fact that she had infiltrated and been basically regulating the criminal underworld in preparation for a bust -an operation wholly based on her own skill by what I found- and had refrained from reporting to her superiors about this whole thing for risk of compromising it was a far better resume than anyone else I had met had regarding covert operations.

That issue aside, I now found myself in a state of abject rage standing in the shadows of a rooftop staring at the popup in front of me. Considering the severity of the operation I had been ready to bite the bullet and make use of a certain title that I really, really, didn't want to but when I had attempted to equip it, a rather infuriating popup had appeared as the title failed to equip.

* * *

 **The Title** **«Legendary Nevermore Knight» may not be equipped at this time, the current event is heavily related to «Jaune Arc» and hence prevents the interference of a heroic persona at this time.**

* * *

THIS. GOD. DAMN. TITLE.

Not only was its mere existence a source of borderline existential embarrassment, but the one time I had been willing to bear with it for a powerup I WASN'T ALLOWED TO EQUIP THE BLOODY THING.

Pushing down the urge to scream I forced myself to calm down, shaking myself momentarily, before setting off towards my meeting point with Roman and Neo once more.

* * *

3 fucking days. That was how long it had taken for everything I'd spent the last 15 years building up to go from stable and growing to all but doomed and unsalvageable.

Perhaps the worst part of it was that it could have been worse… That it would have been worse if I hadn't had the sheer dumb luck to have unwittingly shown enough competence to some ghost of an assassin that he decided to use me to orient the criminal underground for damage control. I had managed to get a bit of influence and resources available to me outside of Atlas, mostly by careful spreading of the information I had been handed on a silver plate, but even with that I knew It'd be at least 5 or 6 years until I could re-attain the level of influence and power I had… or at least thought I'd had, a few days ago.

I was pissed at the White Fang, I was pissed at that Wolf Masked bastard, I was pissed at the Atlesian government, but most of all I furious with myself. Furious that I hadn't noticed this early enough that I could strangle it in the fucking cradle, which I could have done with a month or, hell, two weeks with some difficulty. Furious that I had to be told by someone who had been in Atlas for maybe 2 or 3 months tops, who admitted to having next to no personal connections or personal resources in Atlas, who had been most slowed downed by spending the time to force me to take him seriously after he had basically ganked the entirety of Atlas's white fang in intrigue in barely 2 days.

Furious that I had begun to be no different from the government I mocked and scorned as being far too inflexible and routine. Furious that it was only now that I realized I had adopted the same flaws, routinely dealing with Atlesian protocol, habitually using structured inflexible methods to go around them. I had lost my edge and become a dull machine, lost or at least forgotten my own ability to adapt to things on the fly and see the whole picture, not simply the picture I expected.

When I realized that it was no longer just Neo and I standing on a rooftop overlooking an alleyway that contained a manhole into the sewers, I did not start or jump or flinch as I stared at the masked blonde that stood beside us. This wasn't because I had seen him coming or because he'd arrived on the rooftop with us, in fact I had no clue when exactly he had come to be standing alongside us. One moment he hadn't been there, the next it seemed only natural that he was.

Such horrifyingly precise ability to control one's presence, such that he could even simply make himself slowly there, for lack of a better word, bypassing the typical surprise one would feel at someone suddenly appearing and instead simply becoming a natural part of the area.

I was beginning to realize the biggest gap between the blonde and my multicolored compatriot. While Neo's ability in covert operations were impressive, this was only in staying hidden and not being noticed or otherwise disguising herself, specialized for extremely short-term infiltrations and assassinations. The blonde was good at that and everything else, he was a god-damned generalist with skills that put to shame all but the most supremely skilled specialists in their fucking strong points.

He could conceal his presence, hide in a crowd, pick a pocket, break into a building, hack a computer, eavesdrop, infiltrate, assassinate, manipulate, blackmail, find someone's weak points, and dozens of other things with absolute confidence and ease, as if they were only a single skill instead of dozens of them… and perhaps… and perhaps to him they were.

Despite how assured I had been earlier I had started to wonder if, perhaps, the assassin in front of me was actually closer to his apparent age that I had initially thought possible. The absurdly uniform nature of his covert skills could only be explained by a completely equal cumulative degree of talent, experience, and practice in each -which was ridiculously unlikely- or by being something that had been solely taught by a teacher who had deliberately shored up his weak points to maintain equilibrium -hard to believe but not wholly outlandish-.

In terms of physical condition, someone with the physical ability and condition of a hunter should not end up as short as the assassin appeared, even rather severe malnourishment and over exercise would only marginally stunt the growth of a person with aura, unless he had a naturally short adult height like Neo -which was fairly rare, especially for males- he should definitely have been much taller.

The rather high pitch of the assassin's voice was another suspect point, while he typically spoke in what was a roughly average pitch for an adult, his laughter was much higher pitched. From the ridiculous number of odd facts and common habits I'd memorized when I was first learning to read people, I knew that the average male laughs at a pitch about 2 ½ times higher than their normal speech while I pegged the masked assassin's laughter as being at least 3 ½ or 4 times higher, meaning he was either a weird laugher or his voice was naturally much higher pitched than he pretended it was.

While both his height and high-pitched voice could be simple genetic traits, having both was also fairly typical of a boy prior to puberty.

The assassin's complete lack of contacts and subordinates as well as the fact that he was new to Atlas was another indicator, for an experienced assassin to have never once gone to Atlas -one of the four kingdoms- seemed suspect considering his skill level, this would only be explainable by something like -for example- an extremely short career.

Finally, the little performance he'd shown earlier, with a casual effort causing half of a room filled with relatively skilled thieves and the like to lose sight of him while he was walking was the fifth and -as far as I was concerned- final nail in the coffin. The masked… boy… I suppose, had shown the ability to perfectly manipulate his presence when he was concentrating on it. When it came to skills like that the hard part was bringing it up to perfection, making it so you could do it reflexively was relatively easy after that, considering all you needed to do was constantly use it until it had become a habit and the only thing that required… was time. Time an 11 or 12-year-old would not yet have had.

It brought to mind a saying I had heard once, that the type of person who could reach A-rank was a once in a decade prodigy, while the type of person would could reach S-rank was a once in a century monster.

While there were only 5 S-ranks alive at the moment, I suppose that trend fits, considering that simply having the potential doesn't mean a person will live to reach it. By my own reckoning, the last person with that kind of potential would've been the Arc that single handedly ganked Mistral before his death, and considering he was nearing a century old at the time (crazy young for a peak, borderline pinnacle A-rank hunter) and seeing as it's been more than 70 years since then…

…Well I suppose Remnant is long overdue the birth of a new monster.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **This chapter gave me a frankly ridiculous amount of trouble, and even now I am not totally satisfied with it. The only parts that came fairly easily was the second half of the criminal meeting, the Yoruichi expy being a black ops commander thing, and Roman's introspection. The rest of the chapter fought me tooth and nail, and honestly I intended to start the actual fight and bomb defusal part of this arc in this chapter but I just couldn't flow into it in a way that satisfied me, so I'm going use the chapter breakup to do so.**

 **I also wanted to get this chapter out to show that the story is not dead, while I am struggling a bit I have a lot of things planned out still and am still actively working on it (in terms of time I spend on it, if not progress)**

 **Regarding consumables, while I think I will be doing the small permanent stat increase ones, I'm probably going to not have recovery or temporary stat boosting items derived from Jaune's semblance.**

 **In place of that, to show Jaune's semblance growing I have come up with another alternative that he will eventually unlock that I think fits in well.**

 **As for Jaune's new assassin's lineage trait, I'm pretty happy with the fact that no one guessed what it was around. If you think I didn't give any clues, well;**

 **The first time it was mentioned was when he killed the Nuckelavee, which was an opponent he could not beat in head to head combat and instead did so by slipping through its defenses and one-hit killing it, earlier on he killed an Ursa without it ever seeing him, something he also did killing Beowolves in chapter 1 (not counting the prologue). Since the trait was expressly said to be developing based on behaviors and actions -plural- and Jaune already has a trait centered around being in extreme danger, one of the other major aspects of the battle, this was the first hint.**

 **Jaune did not receive a popup after his fight with mistrals black ops despite its touch and go nature near the end -a hint that it wasn't battle related- because he got arrogant and revealed himself at the end, botching his otherwise excellent stealth which combined with the rather massive skill gap between him and his opponents (in covert skills at least) meant he gained no progress towards the trait manifesting.**

 **After his fight with the Saber toothed Reavers the trait was indicated to be close to manifesting, following a battle he won by fooling his opponents and luring them into a disadvantageous position and then turning the hunters into the hunted in a battle he would not have won in a flat-out fight.**

 **So, while it wasn't extremely clear, I personally think I hinted at it quite well, to say nothing of the fact that Jaune's growth in covert skills being so much higher than basically anything else was meant to act as a hint on its own.**

 **Well enough of me talking about how it all went according to my Keikaku*, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, bye for now.**

 _ ***Note Keikaku means plan**_


End file.
